


The Darkened Ship

by Kawaii_Chibi_InuDemon



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:20:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 31,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27304765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kawaii_Chibi_InuDemon/pseuds/Kawaii_Chibi_InuDemon
Summary: Two star struck lovers on a doomed ship... B/V with a Titanic twist...
Relationships: Bulma Briefs/Vegeta, Bulma Briefs/Yamcha
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

Vegeta smirked at the man across from him, the sounds of the place they were in loudly booming around them. Other men sat around him, one of his friend while the other were people he knew nothing about. They had been playing a round of poker to pass the time and with this hand he had been given a life-time opportunity as another male had placed a single ticket on the table.

"Seems that I have beaten you," he said proudly. "Kakarot." The other man smiled stupidly as his childlike face glowed. Seemed like he wasn't too angry, but that was how the other male was.

"You fucking bastard," the man growled, his once happy face growing angry. "I will kick your fucking ass!" Vegeta smirked as he grabbed all that was on the poker table, including a ticket for a luxury liner….

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The clock on the wall chimed as it hit seven, letting all that waited in the bar for the luxury liner, Titanic, to take off from the dock. Most people had already loaded, but some stragglers stayed late to say good-bye to loved ones. Vegeta ran toward the ship with his buddy, Radditz in tow. They had known each other for years and although they disagreed on a few things, one thing that they agreed on was that given the chance they would go to America. This was that chance. After grabbing what little belongings they had they boarded the ship.

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On the other side of the ship a beautiful white car pulled up to the dock, another car, similar in model, but black pulled up behind it. The black door opened to admit a young man with a baby face, his charcoal eyes cold as he looked around him in disinterest. He had heard such great things about this ship, but he made his judgement by just looking at it from the outside.

"This is a luxury liner? Looks more like a enclosure for animals," he moaned as the door to the white door opened to allow a young, azure haired woman to exit, her pale skin glowed in the sun light, making her glow like an angel. Another lady, older, stepped out, her blond hair piled on her head elegantly. The young girl touched her azure curls as they blew in her face. She looked up at the large ship, the beauty of it with the background of the blue skies mixed with the smell of the sea, she found that she felt nothing. It was just another ship to her, another prison that would keep her like they all seemed to be to her these days

"It doesn't look like much," the older woman said. "Let's hurry." The driver grabbed the entire luggage and then headed for the ship. The ladies and the man walked between them, his arms linked with theirs even as she looked at him in distain.


	2. Chapter 2

The two males ran through the halls of the large vessel, their spirits high as they made it to the top deck. With a hoot they waved good-bye to all the people on dock as the horn of the liner shouted its own cheer to the crowds below. The pair of them were excited to be leaving their home behind as they were tired of the town they had been living in and ready for an adventure.

"Good bye, fuckers!" Radditz yelled as he jumped up and down as Vegeta just watched the people down below them, his eyes looking around at the people that surrounded them as they waved good- bye to their loved ones while the ship left the harbor.

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Vegeta smirked as the pair entered their room. Two other men looked up and with a frown looked at each other. It didn't seem as if they were in the right room as the people in there weren't the ones they had been expecting to see upon entering their room. The space wasn't really all that big with only a pair of bunk beds in the small space with a sink between the two.

"I thought that Kakarot was coming," one said in Japanese. The other shrugged his shoulders as they watched the two men climb into the opposite bunks. The smaller one threw the large one off the top with a snarl.

"Who said that you get the top bunk?" he said with a frown before climbing onto it.

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Yamcha looked around the large room, its windows large, letting the sunlight into the dim room.

"This is your private deck, sir." Yamcha nodded as he looked out the windows onto the sea below. Trees decorated the wooden room; it's wooden floors pale and shiny. A few reclining lawn chairs sat together facing the middle window. "Will you be needing anything else?" The young man said nothing, but shook his head.

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Maids ran around the room making it presentable for the rich guests. The azure haired girl smiled, as she looked at a painting in her pale hands. In the background a maid placed a white vase full of roses on the mantel.

"Would you like all of them out, miss?" the young made inquired as she pulled out a painting of a ballerina. The girl nodded. The room was lovely to others, but the blue haired woman didn't see it as she glanced over at the maid next to her.

"This room could use some color. It looks so much like a prison cell." With a nod the woman began to unload some more of the paintings while the azure haired girl place the large one in her hands in front of the fireplace. A man to the left of her instructed some men where to put some more of the luggage, while another man entered from the deck. Yamcha looked down at the paintings that lay against one wall while others were placed around the room, but he glared at them in distaste.

"Kami, those finger paintings again," the man muttered. "They were such a waste of money." The girl's face did not change as she picked up another painting, this one of lily pads on a murky pond. She didn't like the male, but it seemed for the moment she was stuck with him because of her mother's agreement with the male.

"There is one difference between Yamcha's taste and my own," the girl said as she sat the painting down in a chair. "I have some." She looked down at the paintings before her. "It's almost like a dream. There is truth, but no logic."

"What is the artist's name?" The girl frowned in thought, the name of the artist escaping her for a moment.

"Something Picasso," she said thoughtfully. The dim room brightened as some of the maids opened the curtains and let the rising sun in. Around them the walls looked like cherry wood with gold trim. All that decorated this room was burgundy and cherry colored furniture, some couches and loveseats. Yamcha snorted.

"This something Picasso won't amount to a thing," Yamcha said disdainfully as he looked down at a picture.

"No one asked your opinion," the girl spat, angry with his continuing distain for her own interests.

"He won't. Trust me." The girl said nothing as she disappeared into the bedroom with another picture, the same maid followed with another one. "At least they were fucking cheap," he muttered to the man directing the workers.

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The girl placed the picture in her room while the maid placed hers on a chair.

"It smells so brand new," the young maid gushed. The azure haired girl smiled. "Just think. It's like the ship was made just for us, I mean when I crawl under those sheets I will be the first." Yamcha entered the room, a dirty smirk on his face.

"Just think, when we crawl beneath the sheets I will be the first." With a flick of his wrist he dismissed the maid. "The first and only, right Bulma, my love?" Bulma looked at the floor, her cerulean eyes detached, though her face betrayed her disgust. Yamcha began to kiss her neck and smell her so she leaned back and kissed his cheek as they stood, there, his arms around her small waist as he rested his head on her shoulder. This was going to be a long life and not one of her choosing and while she acted like it was okay, that was only because of her mother who had made sure that she knew who buttered their bread, not that she really cared.


	3. Chapter 3

When we came to Sherborn a young woman came aboard, her name was Bosom Son, but we just called her Chi-Chi. History would call her the Unsinkable Chi-Chi Son.

"Well I wasn't about to wait all day for you, young man," the dark haired girl said as she handed the boy some of her smaller bags. "Think that you can handle that?" The boy nodded as they headed for the elevators. Her husband had struck gold someplace out west and she was what mother called "new money." By the next afternoon we finally had left the beachfronts and headed out into the ocean, nothing surrounding us, but water below us and clear skies above…

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"Take us to sea, Mr. Murdock," the Captain said as he looked at his next in line. "Let's stretch her legs." The man next to him nodded as he headed back into the steering room to change the speed. With a flick of both speedometers in the room, the crew under them added more coal. Smoke poured out from the funnels as the ship grew faster. The captain smiled as he looked over his ship.

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Vegeta and Radditz ran to the bow of the ship, their eyes shinning with adventure. Vegeta climbed up on the bars of the railing and crowed at the top of his lungs, Radditz followed. The skies around them were blue and filled with white, fluffy clouds. He looked down below him and noticed some of the dolphins swimming around the bottom of the ship; his dark eyes watched them as he talked to Radditz.

"Do you see them?" he inquired of his buddy. "See those fucking creatures down there? They are so fucking stupid! They are so fucking stupid, but so brave to be swimming in front of a ship that could kill them!" He watched the creatures and realized how small they looked with him being so high in the skies, but he was not so unused to things looking smaller to him. "I am the king of the world!" he yelled out suddenly, his pride loud and clear for all to hear. "I am the king of this fucking world!" Some passengers looked up, most in shock and others in displeasure. Other's snickered at the dark haired man.

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"She is the largest moving damn thing built by man," the old man said as he looked around him. "Our master ship builder, Mr. Krillin can tell you all about it." A short, bald man smiled.

"I may have knocked her pieces together, but the idea was all Mr. Roshi's," the man said as he motioned the older male. "He envisioned a steamer so grand in scale, but so luxurious that it was like a floating palace. He wanted it so that it's supremacy could never be challenged." He banged the solid wood table. "And here she is." Bulma pulled out a long stick with a cigarette attached to it. "Willed into life." Everyone around her began to order his or her food as she lit her cigarette, her mother noticing this, bent over.

"Bulma, you know that I hate that," Mrs. Briefs muttered angrily. The blue haired girl looked over at her and with a smirk, blew the smoke in her mouth in her mother's now shocked face. Yamcha took the cigarette and extinguished it while throwing her a look of reprove.

"She knows," was all he said as he turned to the waiter. "We will both have the lobster, light butter sauce and a glass of your best white wine." Chi-Chi looked at the man in displeasure while Bulma just stared at him with hidden anger at his choice to pick her meal, as he assured her that she liked it, with a plastic smile on her face.

"You gonna shell her food for her too, Yamcha?" He looked over at her, his smile now gone and replaced with a scowl. Giggling the woman turned to Krillin. "So, who thought of the name the Titanic?" She looked over at the old man. "Was it you Roshi?" The man smirked with pride. "Yes, it was. I wanted to convey size, stability and strength. Above all I wanted to convey luxury. This is the Titanic." Bulma smiled.

"Mr. Roshi." He looked over at her, his eyes looking lower than her face, but looking at her nonetheless. "Have you ever heard of Freud?" The man stared at her in confusion. "He has a theory with the man's preoccupation with size might interest you. Perhaps you would like to read up on it." Chi-Chi smiled and Krillin nearly gagged on his tea as he withheld a laugh. Mrs. Briefs looked up her child in amazement. She couldn't believe how rude her child was being to the men before her. She had always been a rambunctious child, but she had been sure that in the years that had followed the girl had learned some manners.

"What has gotten into you?" she hissed. Bulma said nothing, just stood up from her seat and without asking left the table in shock with some of the occupants smiling. Mr. Roshi stood as was customary, but said nothing. "I must say that I am sorry for her behavior. I do not know what has gotten into her."

"She's a spit fire," Chi-Chi said as she turned to Yamcha. "I hope that you can handle her." He stared at the ebony haired woman before him and with taunt lips responded. He did not like this woman, she was too blunt for his tastes even if she was rather beautiful in her own way.

"I'll just have to limit what she reads from now on." Roshi was still confused, the male she had asked about still on his mind.

"Who is this Freud? Is he a passenger?" Some of the others at the table burst out in light chuckling while others just sweat dropped at his change in the topic to the one that the rather irate female that had left them with.

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Vegeta sat looking at an old man with a young girl, a picture being sketched in his hands. His obvious fascination with their hands as he drew a close up of them.

"It is an English ship?" Radditz asked a pig next to him.

"No, it is made in China dumbass," the pig named Oolong said with authority. "Hard working Chinese made this ship." Just as they said this some first class males came down with their dogs. "What the hell. Look at that shit. We can't go on their side, but they can come down here to let their dogs take a shit."

"To remind us where we are on the food chain," Radditz grumbled as they watched the very dog release its bowels a few feet away from them.

"That is some nice drawings," Oolong said as he watched Vegeta sketch the old man and young girl. Vegeta said nothing as his attention was drawn to something in the distance. Both men turned and saw what he was eyeing. Bulma stood by the railing, a very pissed off look on her face as her curled azure tresses blew around her face, the rest dancing low on her butt. She wore an emerald dress, the color making her hair appear even more exotic. "Forget it, idiot," oolong said. "She is high above your ranks." Vegeta growled low in his throat at the pig, but just as he did this, the woman turned her eyes toward him and the growl died at the blueness of her orbs. She was a goddess. She turned from him, but seconds later turned back at him, her eyes locking with his. Just then Yamcha approached her, breaking the eye contact she turned to him, her brows knitting in anger. The man roughly grabbed her arm and yanked her to him. He watched as words were exchanged and the girl stomped away from Yamcha, shoving him away from her. The male turned to look out at the people, his eyes cold as he noted Vegeta and the men with him.


	4. Chapter 4

Bulma could see her existence as if she had already lived it. It would be a mind-numbing life full of gatherings and banquets, polo matches and yachts. It would always be the same mechanical people, the same monotonous chatter of voices that talked of nothing but material things. She felt like she was on a great precipice no one to hold her back, none that cared for her meaningless life. Under the white table cloth, Bulma held a salad fork, her eyes emotionless as she poked the fork into her skin harder and harder with each blow until she drew blood, the crimson liquid running down her pale skin as it escapes its prison.

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Bulma walked slowly along the corridor, her face composed as she walked by a steward and an elderly couple as she headed toward her room. Upon entering and closing the door all hell breaks loose. With a cry of anger and frustration she clawed at that the pearls that choked her with their luxury. Flinging them across the room she tears at her blue locks and her lovely wine red dress. She managed to pull her hair out its intricate bun, but her dress remained unscathed and in all its glory. She then turned to the room, several more cries emitting from her pink lips. She flung a silver brush across the room, a dent left from its impact within the wooden wall. She turned to the mirror that adorned her vanity and with another howl she punches the glass, shattering it down the middle.

"Fucking hell!" she screams heatedly as blood runs down her fingers from the wound done by her heated deed. Her blue hair flew behind her as Bulma ran down the B deck promenade, her eyes red with past tears, some still streaking down her face with the wind that brushed against her flushed cheeks. She pushed past several people, uncaring as they cried out in surprise, most of them were couples out enjoying the full moon. The watched in shock as the young girl showed her emotions, something that simply wasn't done in their circles.

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(On the Poop Deck)

Vegeta lay on the timber bench, his feet resting on the black, metallic arm rest. His lips hugged a lit cigarette, the smoke curling to the heavens as his onyx eyes gazed at the twinkling stars in the black skies. Hearing the hurried footfall of the blue haired girl he turned just in time to see her whip past him, her cries ringing in his ears. They are the only two on the stern deck, except for quartermaster Rowe, who is twenty feet above them on the docking bridge catwalk. She noticed neither in her hurry to escape the unknown, her thoughts jumbled in disarray. She continued to run quickly, her vision blurred with suppressed tears and her breath hitched with concealed sobs. She slammed into the flagpole that looks over the black waters below the large liner. Her blue eyes lock on the murky waters as her mind goes blank. All she can think of is how comforting the waters look to her aching soul. She glanced around her before climbing the rails, her dark dress pulled up as she clumsily climbed over the railing, the only thought of the comfort that death would bring her. Moving methodically she turned her body and hooked her heels onto the white-painted gunwale, her backside against the railing. She looked out at the darkness, the very way her soul felt....so dark and empty. Sixty feet below her the massive propellers are churning the Atlantic waters into white foam, it's ghostly wake trailing off into the horizon. The cold wind bit at her pale skin, its color growing paler with the cold. She leaned out, her arms straightening as she relaxed her body. Her cerulean gaze is locked down, hypnotized by the vortex below her. Her azure locks flutter around her as she loosens her grip a little, her knuckles turning red and white with the pressure it takes to keep her in place above her death bed. It would be so easy to allow the currents below her to take her, to allow her to feel nothing, but she hesitates for a moment.

"Don't do it!" a masculine voice says firmly. Bulma whips her head around, her eyes unfocused as she frowns at a figure behind her.

"Stay back," she commands as her eyes focus on the man before her. He had dark hair, its tint reddish brown and his eyes; his eyes are a dark onyx. She seems lost in them for a second. "Don't come any closer!" she commands as she turns from him. He steps closer as her eyes leave him, but then she turns her blue orbs toward him and he stops again, unsure if he can make to her before she jumps. He has no idea why he should care when he didn't even know her, but something tells him to stop her, to keep her safe from whatever she is running from.

"Take my hand," he says as her tears glisten in the light of the moon and the subtle lights on the ship's deck.

"No, stand back!" she cries as more tears run down her pale cheeks. Vegeta continues to hold out his hand as he inches toward the angel, her body shaking with the force of her emotions that are hammering her small form.

"Come on," he urges.

"I will jump," she says as she loosens her hands. He inches toward her, a cigarette still between his lips.

"No, you won't," he says with confidence. Her eyes slant in anger. She didn't know this man and he didn't know her so who was he to say she wouldn't release her fingers and allow the waters below to take her away?

"You don' know me," she snapped, her cheeks flushing in anger at him, as she looks into his dark eyes, the water churning below her, a loud noise in the background.

"Don't fuck around with me," he snapped back. "If you really wanted to kill yourself, you would have already jumped off." She blinked, her eyes darkened. "Give me your hand and I'll pull you back over." Bulma is confused now. She can't see him through the sheen of tears so she wiped her eyes with one hand and in the process almost loses her balance, her feet slipping slightly, but she easily steadies herself.

"You're distracting me!" she spat angrily. "Go away!" He shook his head, still refusing to step away from her and she didn't understand why he wouldn't just let her be. It was her choice and no one else's to run!!

"I can't now. I'm involved now. If you jump then I jump." Bulma looked at him in shock.

"Don't be an idiot. You'll be killed." Vegeta took off his brown jacket and tossed it to the side.

"I'm a good swimmer," he said as he pulled off his left boot.

"The fall alone would kill you," she said, her brows furrowed.

"It would hurt, I'm sure of that, but I'm more concerned about the temperature of the water." Bulma looks down, her azure lock falling around her pale face as she stared down at the dark waters, the reality of what she was doing sinking in. The water's temperature had never even crossed her mind. She figured that she would be dead upon impact and wouldn't feel anything afterward, but his words stilled her.

"How cold?" she asked, her small voice shaking. He pulled of his right boot and tossed with the other one that lay next to his coat.

"Freezing, maybe a couple degrees over. Ever been to Germany?" he asked. Bulma looked up at him in perplexity, the question so out of place with what was going on at that moment, but she still bit.

"What? No."

"They have some of the coldest winters there and well, my father and I were out there sparing on the ice." She looked at him in bewilderment.

"Sparing?"

"It's kind of like fi-"

"I know what sparing is!" she spat.

"Sorry… You don't look like the kind of girl that knows anything about that sort of thing… Anyway, I landed too hard and fell through the ice. Let me tell you right now. That water hit me like a million knives hitting me everywhere. I had never felt pain like that before. I couldn't breath, I couldn't think, well, except about the pain." He stepped closer to her. "That's why I really don't want to save your dumb ass. I guess I'm hoping that you'll change your mind and come back over the rail and let me off the hook."

"You're crazy!" she said. He walked closer to her, his face serious.

"Everyone tells me that, but I'm not the one hanging off the back of a ship." He moves next to her, his movement careful like approaching a spooked horse. "Come on, you don't want to do this," he said as he reached for her hand. Bulma looked at him, her cerulean eyes gazing into his mysterious ones. Suddenly everything began to feel different as his eyes filled her universe. The darkness of his gaze so different from the darkness that lay below her and for some reason she felt that his darkness was calling to her, whispering soothing words of comfort even as he was uttering nothing, his lips now still as he waited for her decision.

"Alright," she said as she unfastened a hand from the railing and turned toward him, her free hand reaching for his outstretched one. As she moves to step up on the white railing, her dress snags her foot and she plunges, a scream falling from her lips as she plummets toward the cold, rushing waters.


	5. Chapter 5

Quartermaster Rowe, up on the docking bridge heads for the ladder upon hearing Bulma's shriek of fright tear through the dark, frosty darkness.

"Help! Oh, please help me!" Bulma cried as Vegeta grasps her wrist, his grip tight as he tries to keep her from falling to her death as she had once intended to do.

"I've got you," Vegeta states as he tried to wrench her up. "I won't let go." His fingers turned pallid with all the muscle that he was using to hold her up, while bracing himself on the railing with his other hand. Bulma struggled to get some kind of toehold on the smooth hull. Bulma struggled harder as he tried to lift her bodily over the railing, but she can't seem to get any footing in her lengthy, expensive dress and her evening shoes are not helping as she slips back, a scream falling from her ruby lips. Vegeta finally managed to get her over the railing, the pair falling together onto the deck in a tangled pile, spinning in such a way that Vegeta landed slightly on top of the shaking form of Bulma. Rowe slid down the ladder from the docking bridge like it's a fire drill and makes his way across the fantail.

"What the fuck is all this?" Rowe cries in disgust. He runs over, shoving Vegeta from Bulma, revealing her disheveled cloths and her azure hair spread around her face like a halo. There are tear streaks on her flushed cheeks and her dress is torn above the knee, revealing her creamy, white leg. Two seamen join them at the end of the ship, their eyes drawn to the sobbing woman on the ground. They all turned to look at Vegeta, the steerage man with his jacket off and the then back a Bulma, the first class lady clearly in distress and come to one instant conclusion. He turned to Vegeta, his gaze hard as is Vegeta's as he glowered back. "Stand back!" he yelled in warning, Vegeta taking one step back. "Don't move an inch!" Vegeta frowns.

"You tell me to stand back and then you tell me not to move! What the fuck?" He knew how it looked and while he knew he was innocent it would take the word of the woman before him to clear him. He couldn't do it as they would never believe him because of his class, but the woman in question was still crying, her fear at almost dying palpable in the air around him. He had done the right thing though and even if she never cleared him he didn't regret his actions.

"Silence," Rowe snapped before looking back at the pair of seamen. "Fetch the Master at Arms."

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A few minutes later…

Vegeta is being detained by a very burly Master at Arms, the closest thing to a cop on board the ship. He has handcuffed Vegeta, who looks pissed off at the world.

"Name?" the Master at arms asked him, still looking pissed off at what he was told of the situation. No one should ever take advantage of a woman and certainly not when he was around.

"Vegeta Ouji," he stated evenly.

"Mr. Ouji, you will be detained until we reach America." While he reads Vegeta his rights off to the side is Bulma sitting on a bench, her eyes puffy from crying. Next to her is Roshi, he offers her his brandy snifter, but she refuses. Yamcha is more interested in Vegeta. He grabs him by the lapels, his face just inches from his own.

"What made you think that you could put your fucking grimy hands on my fiancée?!" Vegeta looks past him at the hunched up Bulma. "Look at me you bastard! What did you think that you were doing?" he asked, his voice rising as he shook the dark haired man.

"Yamcha, stop! It was an accident!" Yamcha turns his darkened eyes to her.

"A-An ac-ccident?" he asked in shock and confusion.

"It was… stupid really," she said as she got up, forcing herself into a role she hated to play when it came to him. She wasn't stupid and so playing that part rubbed her the wrong way. "I was leaning over and I slipped." Bulma looks over at Vegeta, their eyes making contact. "I was leaning over to see the… ah…" she says, the words stuck on her tongue as she looks down at the ground, her finger spinning as she tries to spit the word out.

"The propellers," Yamcha said, aiding her.

"I slipped and would have gone overboard," she said as she looked back over at Vegeta. "Mr. Ouji saved me and almost fell in with me."

"You wanted to see the propellers?" he asked, incredulous. Roshi shakes his head.

"Women and machinery do not mix." The Master at arms looks at Vegeta.

"Was that the way it happened?" the gruff man asked. Bulma looks at him, her big, cerulean eyes begging him not to say what really happened.

"Yeah, that was pretty much it." He looked at Bulma a moment longer, his eyes not able to look away from hers. Now they have a secret together.

"Well! The boy is a hero then," Roshi says as he thumped Vegeta on the back. "Good for you sonny, well done." He turns to Yamcha, a broad smile on his old face. "So, it's all good, so now let us get back to our brandy." Vegeta is freed from his handcuffs. Yamcha puts his arm around Bulma's cloaked figure. He pulls her close, his hands rubbing her cold body.

"You're freezing, lets get you inside." They head inside, Bulma glancing over her shoulder at Vegeta while Yamcha is more than ready to go without a second glance at the dark haired male.

"Ah…" Roshi says, his voice low. "Perhaps a little something for the boy?"

"Oh, right," he turns to his loyal guard. "Mr. Nappa. A twenty should do it." Bulma looks up at him, displeasure in her blue eyes.

"Is that the going rate for saving the woman that you claim to love?" Yamcha looks down at her, a frown on his young face.

"Bulma is displeased," he whispered. "Mmm… What to do?" Yamcha turned to Vegeta. He looked him up and down, his gaze condescendingly… He looked at him like he is trash, something that smells rank. "I know," he stated with a slight smirk, looking away from Vegeta. "Perhaps you could join us for dinner tomorrow." He turned to Vegeta. "You can tell us about your heroic tale." Vegeta's gaze lands on Bulma.

"Sure. Count me in." Yamcha turned from him.

"Good." Yamcha placed his arm around Bulma again before he walked by Roshi, muttering with a chuckle, "This should be quite the show." Just as Nappa is leaving Vegeta stops him with a whistle.

"Can I bum a smoke?" he inquires. The big guard pulls out a gold Cigarette case and snaps it open. After taking one for later he grabs one more. Nappa lights Vegeta cigarette before looking down at Vegeta's booted feet.

"You might want to lace those," he says. Vegeta looks down at his boots and shrugs. "Interesting," the large man mutters causing Vegeta to look back at him. "The young lady slipped so suddenly, but you had enough time to remove your boots and your jacket." Nappa's expression is bland, but his black eyes are cold. He turns and walks to join his group.


	6. Chapter 6

Bulma looked up as Yamcha entered her room, his cracked refection in her broken mirror. She returns to brushing her long, azure locks, hoping he would get the hint and leave her alone. She didn't want anything to do with him and with his little display regarding Vegeta she found that she hated him more.

"I know that you have been sad, and I don't pretend to understand why." She ignored him, until he pulled out a large, velvet jewelry box. Her cerulean eyes grow large as she takes the box, her body and emotions numb. She didn't want it, that box. He was trying to buy her, hoping that with gifts she would come to his side willingly, but she couldn't do that... not in good conscious. "I intended to save this until the engagement gala next week, but I though that I would give it as a reminder of my feelings." Bulma opened the box, her heard pumping in her chest, panic rising in her lungs. Inside the box, sitting in silk is a necklace, the necklace that anyone would fall in love with. It is huge… a malevolent blue stone glittering with an infinity of scalpel-like inner reflections.

"My Kami, Yamcha," she gasps in fear and astonishment. "Is it a-"

"Diamond," he finished for her. "Yes, it is. Fifty-six carats to be accurate." He took the large necklace and placed it around her throat. Bulma's eyes only flicker with her fear at the confinement of the heavy diamond as he turned her to the mirror, his dark eyes staring at her, making her feel even more claustrophobic. It was like a collar, an expensive one at that, but still a collar and she had to hold back the urge to pull it from her neck. "It was worn by Louis the Sixteenth. They call it Le Coeur la Mer, the-"

"The Heart of the Ocean," Bulma said, her voice soft. "Yamcha, it's… it's so overpowering." He gazed at them in the glass, his eyes darkening.

"We are royalty and that is what we are." He fingered the necklace, his cold eyes unguarded as he touched the cold stone. His tanned fingers touch her neck as his lips caress her throat. "There is nothing that I wouldn't- couldn't give you," he whispers, his breath warming her already flushed skin. "There is nothing that I would deny you if you would not deny me one thing that I wish." Bulma looks at him, her eyes dark. "Open your heart to me, Bulma." She couldn't do that because she knew her heart wasn't his to have, and he didn't want her heart anyway. He wanted her body, to possess her in a way that she didn't want to give him.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bulma walked proudly, with purpose, into the third class part of the ship, her eyes darting around her for the one familiar face. The steerage men on the deck stop what they are doing to stare at the first class girl that seems to have wandered onto their part of the ship. She walked into the third class commons room. This room is startling in comparison to the first class glamour. The main feature of the area are benches spread across the small room full of unlearned and low class occupants, their voices loud and boisterous. Kids run between benches, mothers sit with their infants while some men play chess. Old women yell and old men rest while girls do needlepoint and read dime store novels. Vegeta is sitting in the corner with Radditz; both are talking in low voices while a young, blonde haired girl runs around them in a circle. Radditz is struggling to get a conversation with a young Japanese girl, Launch, sitting with her family across the room.

"No Japanese? Some English?" the dark haired girl shakes her head.

"Iie, iie. Japanese. Only." Launch's navy eye is caught by something beyond their small circle causing Radditz to look. Vegeta noticed slowly that the room had gotten quiet and glanced in the direction where everyone is looking. Bulma stands before him in a white gown, a blue sash tied tight around her small waist. Her azure hair is loose; the straight locks hanging loose around her frame. All the low class passengers stare openly at the seemingly rich child. Some look in anger, resentment, while others look in awe and want. She looked at him, a smile gracing her red lips. He rises as she comes to him.

"Hello, Vegeta," she says, her small voice flooring Radditz and Oolong who sit nearby. It is like Cinderella getting the prince, but the roles are reversed as Vegeta is the low class one between the two.

"Hello," he says, his dark eyes never leaving her pale face. She looked around, noting the audience that she seems to have attracted by her appearance. She felt slightly uncomfortable with all the looks.

"Ummm… Can I speak to you alone." Vegeta smirked.

"Uh, yes. After you." He motions her forward before following behind her. He glances once over his shoulder, one dark brow raised as he leaves. The room is left in shock as to what just occurred in the third class lounge.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Boat Deck

Vegeta and Bulma walk side by side, their appearances mismatched as they pass people reading and other couples out just enjoying the nice morning. They are both awkward, but for different reasons. She was doing something that would surely get her in trouble with not only her mother but Yamcha as well. He would see this as her walking out on him and even as she yearned to do that she would never willingly get the male beside her into that mess.

"Do you have a name? You know mine, but I don't know yours."

"Bulma. Bulma Bra Briefs."

"That is quite an interesting name," he said with a chuckle. There is a tense pause as both think of other things to talk about. They are from different worlds it seems and there is a gap in what they know and don't about the other's world.

"Mr. Ouji, I-" He cut her off with a wave of his hand.

"Vegeta."

"Vegeta," she says, the name tingles on her tongue. "I feel like such an idiot." She looks down at her feet before looking up at him. "It took me all morning to get the courage to come and face you after what… happened last night."

"Well, here you are."

"Here I am… I- I want to thank you for last light. Not just for pulling me back, but for your tact."

"You're welcome, Bulma." Suddenly her nervousness gets the better of her and in a squeaky voice she looks at him, her face flushed.

"Look, I know what you must be thinking right now. Poor little rich girl. What does she know about misery?"

"I wasn't thinking that at all. What I was thinking was… what could have hurt this girl so badly that she thought that she had no other way out." It was true. He didn't feel like he could mock her since most people, rich or poor, had something miserable in their life that they were running from and with her he couldn't imagine what would have taken her to that path, the path that she could never come from.

"It wasn't just… It was everything!" Bulma said, her face red with anger. "It was them! It was their whole world and I was trapped in it like an insect in a glass jar!" Bulma took a few gasping breaths before rushing on. "I just had to get away. I just had to run and run. I couldn't understand where I was going or what I was going to do, but my heart drove me further from the suffocating room. Then I found myself at the back rail," she said softly as she looked out at the ocean. "There was no more ship… Even the Titanic wasn't big enough for me to get away from them. All I saw then was the rushing, peaceful water. I just wanted to show them. The only words in my head were, they'll be sorry." But would they really? Would they mourn her death or look at it as another mistake that she had made.

"Uh huh. They'll be sorry, but of course you'll be dead." Bulma lowered her head in shame. Yeah, she would have let them win with that move. 

"Oh, Kami, I am such an utter fool."

"Was that one penguin one of them?" he asked, hoping that she didn't want to be with the pretentious male, his blood boiling again at the one word that had been running in his mind since meeting her. She was someone's fiancée and he didn't want it to be so when he yearned to be the one that she held close, the one that she kissed as they lay in their bed.

"Penguin?" she asked in confusion before it hit her. "Oh, Yamcha! He is them."

"Is he your boyfriend?" Vegeta inquired hoping the male had been blowing smoke in the presence of another male in the woman's space. Bulma looked miserable for a moment.

"Worse I'm afraid." Bulma shows him her engagement ring. The diamond is about the size of marble, his heart clenching at the knowledge that she was indeed engaged to the bastard that had looked down on him even after saving his intended.

"Damn! Look at that thing! You would have just sunk to the bottom." The laugh together as a passing steward scowls at Vegeta, who is clearly not a first class passenger, but the pair glare at him, scaring the man away. "So, you feel like you are stuck on a path that you can't seem to stop walking, mainly because you are marrying this guy?" She nods with enthusiasm.

"Yes, exactly!" It was simple then. She needed to ditch the douchebag and then she would be free.

"So don't marry him."

"If only it were that simple."

"It is that simple," he says with a scowl. Bulma looks forlorn, but angry all at once.

"Vegeta, don't judge it that quickly until you see the full picture of my world."

"Well, I guess I will tonight." They sit awkwardly for a moment before Bulma notices his sketchbook.

"What is that?" Vegeta shrugs, moving the sketchbook to the side.

"Just some sketches," he responded before Bulma snatches them from him.

"May I?" She sits on a deck chair and opens the small book without waiting for his response. In the book are sketches that are expressive of humanity. One is an old woman's fragile hands; a sleeping man is on the next page followed by a father and daughter on the railing looking out. The faces are incandescent and alive. His book is the celebration of the human form. "These are quite good, really, they are," she says as she looks over some more, her expression one of awe.

"They didn't think to much of them in Paris," he says just as some of the loose sketches fall out of his book and are taken by a sudden wind. Vegeta manages to catch two, but the rest are gone over the seas.

"Oh, Vegeta, I am so sorry," she says as she jumps up to help, but he does not seem overly upset over the illustrations.

"I just seem to spew them out. Besides, they are not worth a damn, so fuck them," he says as he tosses the ones in his hand into the wind. They sail off over the deck and into the sea. Bulma laughs, her happiness makes him smile. She turns her attention back to the book, turns a page and looks in shock for a moment.

"Well, Well…" she fades off. She has come across a series of nudes, all women in various poses. The languid beauty he has created mesmerizes her. His nudes are soulful, true, with expressive hands and eyes. They are almost uncomfortably intimate. She blushes and raises the book as a couple strolls by them, keeping the other passengers from seeing the explicit material. While she is uncomfortable with the nudity of the women in the pictures she is still curious about the story behind them. Vegeta seemed to have been all around the world, free to run as he wished to wherever he wished. She was trapped, following whoever pulled her leash whether it was her mother or Yamcha.

"Were these drawn from life?"

"Yeah. That is one great thing about the women in Paris. Lots of them willing to take their clothes off." She studies one drawing in particular, her blue eyes drawn to a girl posed half in sunlight and her bottom half in shadow. She lies on her side, her hands lie under her chin, one furled and one open like a flower, languid and graceful.

"You liked this woman. You used her in several of your drawings." The male scowled lightly at her words. Sure, he had used the same woman for his drawings, but she had been a willing subject to his sketches, her hands so small and fragile.

"She had beautiful hands." Bulma smiled at his words.

"I think that you must have had a love affair with her…" Bulma stated as she looked over at him for a moment, her eyes dancing with an unseen emotion. She didn't know what it was about this man beside her. He made her smile and feel things she had never felt with another soul and yet, she had no right to be with him, her life as far from his as the clouds were from the ground below them. Looking back down at the drawings she turned several more pages.

"No, no! Just liked her hands," he says with a chuckle. She looks up from the drawings, solemn.

"You have a gift, Vegeta. You see people."

"I see you." There it is, that piercing gaze again. His dark orbs seem to see into her soul.

"And…?"

"You wouldn't have jumped."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reception Room

Mrs. Briefs is having tea with Samantha Rose Finch-Music, the Countess of Earl, a thirty-fifth English blue blood, when she sees someone coming quickly across the room. Her eyes darken and her in a low voice she gets her companion's attention. The woman that they have been avoiding for most of the day is heading toward them.

"Don't look now, but that vulgar Chi-Chi Son is headed our way." She motions to get up. "Get up, quickly before she sits with us." Chi-Chi makes it in time to greet them, as they are rising from their wicker chairs.

"Hello girls, I was hoping to catch you at tea." Mrs. Briefs feigns heartbreak at her words, her tone faked with a skill that she had cultured over many years.

"We're awfully sorry that you missed it, but the Countess and I are off to take some air on the deck." Chi-Chi smiles widely as she grabs Mrs. Briefs' shoulder.

"Great. I need to catch up on all the gossip." The blonde haired lady grits her teeth, as the two refined ladies are drug off by the loud Chi-Chi.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

At another table we find Roshi and Puar, the captain.

"So, you've not lit the last boilers?" Puar shakes her head.

"Iie, but we are making excellent time." Roshi looks at her; obviously the older man is upset.

"Captain Puar, the press knows the size of Titanic, now let them see her speed too. We must give them something new to print. The maiden voyage must make headlines!" he growls impatiently.

"I prefer not to push the engines until they've been properly run in."

"I leave it to you to decide what is best, but what a glorious way to end your last crossing if we get to New York on Tuesday. Retire with a bang, eh, Puar?" Puar looks thoughtful for a moment before nodding hesitantly.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Deck Walkway

Bulma and Vegeta walk together on the sparse decking, most of it occupied by people lounging as the afternoon sun lowers into the skies.

"You know, my dream has always to just pitch it all and become an artist. I want to live in a garret, poor but free!" she says excitingly, her voice girlish and dreamy. Vegeta laughs at her.

"You wouldn't last two days. There is absolutely no hot water and hardly ever any caviar." Bulma's eyes darken as she turns on him, her anger obvious.

"Listen, mother fucker… I abhor caviar and I am so sick and tired of everyone patting me on my head like some hallucinatory child after they dismiss my dreams." Vegeta crosses his arms across him for a moment at her sudden explosion of words. He had seen the fire in her eyes for the first time since meeting her and he found it very sexy.

"Sorry," he says as he waves his arms in defense.

"Good. Vegeta, I know that there is something in me. I don't know what it is, whether I should be an artist, or, I don't know…" she says fading off. "A dancer, like Isadora Duncan…" She leaps forward, lands deftly and whirls like a dervish. Then her cerulean eyes land on something and her face lights up.

"…or a moving picture actress!" she cries as she takes his hand and runs, pulling him toward-

Daniel and Mary Marvin: Daniel is cranking the big wooden movie camera as she poses stiffly at the rail.

"You are sad. Sad, sad, sad," he cries. "You've left your lover on the shore. You may never see him again. Try to be sadder, darling," he encourages. Suddenly Bulma jumps into the picture and strikes a theatrical pose at the rail next to Mary. Mary bursts out laughing. Bulma pulls Vegeta into the picture and makes him pose with her. Daniel grins and starts yelling and gesturing to the threesome.

SERIES OF CUTS:

Bulma posing tragically at the rail, the back of her hand to her forehead.

Vegeta on a deck chair, pretending to be a Pasha, the two girls pantomiming fanning him like slave girls.

Vegeta, on his knees, pleading with his hands clasped while Bulma, standing, turns her head in bored disdain.

Bulma cranking the camera, while Daniel and Vegeta have a western shoot-out. Vegeta wins and leers into the lens, twirling an air mustache like Snidely Whiplash.


	7. Chapter 7

Vegeta and Bulma lean on the A-deck rail, their shoulders touching, his broad one contrasting against her slender one. The sky is painted in orange and yellow, the colors blending into a perfect orange. The ship's lights come on around them as they talk quietly. There doesn't seem to be any other people near them as they converse.

"So, then what, Mr. Wandering Vegeta?"

"Well, logging got to be too much like work, so I went to Los Angeles to the pier in Santa Monica. That is such a great place. They have a small theme park with a roller coaster where I sketched portraits for ten cents a piece."

"A whole ten cents?" Bulma asks incredible. Vegeta doesn't seem to get it as he looks out at the seas.

"Yeah, it was great money. I could make a dollar a day sometimes, but only in the summer. When it got colder I decided to go to Paris and see what the real artist were doing." Bulma sighs as she looks out at the dusk sky.

"I wish that I could be just like you and head out to the horizon whenever I felt like it." She turned back to him to him, her blue eyes shinning brightly. "Say that we will go there someday. Even if we only talk about it."

"Alright, we're going. We will drink cheap beer and ride the coaster until we throw up. We'll ride horses on beach, right in the surf, but you have to ride like a man, none of that side-saddle crap," he said. Bulma looked shocked.

"You mean one leg on each side?" she seemed uncertain. She had never rode a horse like that since it was against the rules to ride like the men did. "Can you show me?"

"Sure. If you like." She smiled at him.

"I think that I would." She gazed out at the horizon now, her bright eyes shinning with mischief. "Teach me to spit like a man. Why should only men be able to spit? That is so unfair!" Vegeta smirked.

"They didn't teach you that at finishing school?" he asked sarcastically. "Here, it's so easy." He spits. It arcs out over the water. He turned to her. "Your turn." Bulma screws up her mouth and spits. A pathetic little bit of foamy spittle leaves her mouth; most of it runs down her chin. She wipes it off as Vegeta laughs.

"Nope, that was pitiful. Here," he says as he turns her toward the horizon, his body next to hers. "Like this… You hawk it down." He begins to hawk, the horrible sound filling the air between the two as she giggles before attempting to follow his instructions. "Then roll it on your tongue," he says around the spit in his mouth. "Up to the front, this," he says as he opens his mouth to show her. "Then a big breath and…" He let the gob fly out of his mouth. The comet flies over the water. Bulma follows his steps while he coaches her by doing the steps with her. She lets it fly at the same time as his does. Two comets of gob fly out over the water.

"That was great!" he praises. Bulma turns to face him, her face alight, but then her light fades and she blanches. He notices her expression and turns to where three women who have been watching the pair spiting. One happens to be her mother and the other two are the Countess of Earl and Chi-Chi Son. Bulma instantly composes herself.

"Mother, this is Vegeta Ouji."

"Charmed, I'm sure." You can hear the distain in her voice, as she looks Vegeta up and down. Vegeta has little bit of spit running down his chin. Chi-Chi is grinning as Bulma proceeds with introductions, telling the small group of how she met the man beside her. You can tell right away that Bulma's mother was displeased with the situation in front of her, while the other two ladies were in awe and adoration of the man before them.

"Well, Vegeta, it sounds like you are the best man to have in sticky situation." The group jumps as a bugle sounds the meal call right behind them. With a frown Chi-Chi jokes, "Why do they insist on announcing dinner like a damn cavalry charge?" Bulma looks at her mother, the look of disapproval blatantly obvious to her daughter.

"Shall we get ready, mother?" Her mother nodded as Bulma looks over at Vegeta, her eyes full of adoration. "See you at dinner, Vegeta." They walk away, their conversation fading.

"Look at you, Bulma," Mrs. Briefs says, her voice aghast. "Out here in the sun with no hat!" The Countess leaves with the pair leaving Chi-Chi and Vegeta alone on the deck. The dark haired woman stared down the young man before her, knowing that this young male was looking to get with the blue haired female even when it was obvious that he was not of the same class as the woman, not that she really was either.

"Son, do you even have the slightest idea what you are doing?" she inquires as she looks at the young man, who is so obviously enthralled with Bulma. He shakes his head.

"Not really."

"I thought so. You are about to enter the snake pit. I hope that y- What are you planning to wear?" she asked as she realized what he was dressed in. He looks down at his cloths and seeing nothing wrong with them indicates that he will where what he is now.

"I figured." She pulls him with her toward her room.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Chi-Chi Son's Stateroom

Men's suits, jackets, and formal wear are strewn about the room. Chi-Chi seems to be having a fine time and Vegeta is dressed, except for his jacket. Chi-Chi is tying his bow tie.

"Don't feel bad about it," Chi-Chi says, her voice bright. "My husband still cannot tie one of these damn thing to save his life and he has been trying for twenty-years." She finishes tying the black bowtie. "There you go." She picks one of the many jackets off the large bed before handing it to him. Vegeta puts it on in the bathroom while Chi-Chi starts to put the other items on the bed away. "I have to buy everything in threes because he always seems to ruin everything I buy, but the man never gains a pound no matter how much he eats." She turns and sees him; her smile broadens. "My, my, my… you shine up like a new penny."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Boat Deck/ First Class Entrance

A purple sky with shots of orange is on the west end of the ship. The air is filled with classical music. He looks so sexy; his hair is gelled a little, his muscles pushing against his borrowed white-tie outfit, right down to his pearl studs. The black makes his skin appear even more olive and tanned. A steward bows as he opens the First Class door, unaware that the male is not from their world.

"Good evening, sir." Vegeta plays his role smoothly as he nods with just the right degree of distain as he enters the upper landing. Vegeta is taken back at all the splendor before him. Sweeping down six stories is the First Class Grand Staircase, the epitome of the opulent naval architecture of the time, while overhead is an enormous glass dome, with a crystal chandelier at its center. The women around him wear floor length dresses that come in a variety of styles, elaborate hairstyles, and abundant jewelry, while the men are dressed in evening attire, standing with one hand at the small of their back, talking quietly amongst themselves.

Vegeta descends to A deck. Several men nod a perfunctory greeting and he nods back, keeping everything simple as he observes those around him. He feel like a spy sent to find a bad guy, most are around him, but there is one in particular that he is watchful for. Yamcha comes down the stairs, Mrs. Briefs on his arm. She is dressed to impress with every last piece of jewelry that she owns on her. They walk by Vegeta, Yamcha nodding at him, but neither recognizing him upon first glance. Vegeta barely has time to laugh because right behind the pair on the stairs is Bulma, a vision in white and black; her low cut dress showing her shoulders and cleavage. Her arms are sleeved in black gloves that cover all if not most of her arm. The colors complement her skin in different ways. The trail of the dress is just long enough to touch the ground. He imitates the gentlemen's stance that walks by him, one hand behind his back, while the other extends toward her. She takes his hand and blushes as he kisses the back of her fingers. She can't take her eyes off him and he can't take his dark eyes off her.

"I saw that in a nickelodeon once and I always wanted to do it." Bulma smiles as she turns to Yamcha.

"Yamcha, surely you remember Mr. Ouji." Yamcha looks at Vegeta in shock.

"Ouji!? I didn't recognize you." He studies the man before him. "Amazing! You could almost pass for a gentleman. Vegeta knows that the male is suspicious of him and the new outfit won't change his opinion of the man before him. He wanted to rip her away from the other male, but as they were in a crowded room full of his peers and those of the upper crust of society he just walks away with her mother in tow. The older woman eyes him with distain, even with his new attire he is nothing but a bug to her.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reception Room on D Deck

As the party descends to dinner they encounter Chi-Chi, looking good in her red dress, her small body looking great in the low cut gown. She grins widely when she sees Vegeta as they enter the dining saloon before she walks next to him.

"Ain't nothing to it, is there, Vegeta?" she says in a low voice. "Just dress like one of them and keep your nose up." He nods softly as she continues, "They only respect money, so just act like you have lots and you are in their club." Bulma leans close to him and points out several of the upper upper class passengers.

"There is Countess Sami Finch-Music and that is John Jacob Astor, the richest man on the ship. His wife there, Madeline, is my age and pregnant. See how she is trying to hide it? Quite the scandal." She nods toward another couple. "Over there is Sir Cosmo and Lucile, Lady Duff-Gordon. She designs naughty lingerie, among her many skills. She is very popular with the royal couples." Yamcha becomes engrossed in conversation with Cosmo Duff-Gordon and Colonel Gracie, while Bunny, the Countess and Lucille discuss fashion. Bulma picots Vegeta smoothly to show him to another couple that is dressed immaculately. "That is Benjamin Guggenheim and his mistress, Madame Aubert. Mrs. Guggenheim is at home with the children." Yamcha on the other hand is accepting the praise of his male counterpart, who are looking at Bulma like some prize show horse.

"Bandit, she is gorgeous."

"Thank you."

"Yamcha is a lucky man and I know him well to know it was luck." Bunny walks over, hearing the last of the conversation. She takes his arm; somewhat coquettishly she smiles up at the other men.

"How can you say that? Yamcha Bandit is a fantastic catch." The entourage runs into the Astors going through the ornate double doors.

"J.J., Madeline. I would like for you to meet Vegeta Ouji." J.J. takes Vegeta's gloved hand.

"Good to meet you. Are you of the Boston Oujis?"

"No, the Verdana Oujis, actually." The other man nods as if he had heard of them, but then looks puzzles. Madeleine Astor appraises Vegeta and turns with a giggle to Bulma.

"It's a pity that we are both spoken for." The dining saloon is like a ballroom in a palace, alive and lit by a constellation of chandeliers and full of elegantly dressed people. The room is full of music from bandleader Wallace Hartley's small orchestra. The group moves to a large table where they all sit down.

"Tell us, Mr. Ouji," Bunny says. "I hear that steerage accommodations are quite good on this ship." Vegeta is seated across from Bulma, who is flanked by Yamcha and Krillin. Also at the table is Chi-Chi, who sits by Vegeta while Countess Sami Rose Finch-Music is on his other side. Bunny sits next to Yamcha, while Roshi sits next to Krillin who is by Colonel Gracie who is flanked by Guggenheim. Next to Guggenheim is Madame Aubert and across from them next to Bunny are the Astors.

"The best that I have seen, ma'am. Hardly and roaches or rats." Yamcha turns to the group. He knew that she was trying to goad him into snapping at her, his class deemed vulgar and prone to fights, but he wouldn't give her that satisfaction.

"Mr. Ouji is joining us from third class. He was of some assistance to my fiancée last night." He turns to Vegeta.

"This is foie gras. It is goose liver," he says as if he is speaking to a child. Suddenly whispers fill the large table as everyone looks over at Vegeta in his new light.

"What is Yamcha trying to prove by bringing this trash up here?" Benjamin inquires of his mistress. A waiter approaches Vegeta, who is not at all bothered by Yamcha, as he is used to his station.

"How do you take your caviar, sir?" Yamcha answers for him.

"Just a soupcon of lemon…" he looks at Vegeta.

"It improves the flavor with champagne." Vegeta turns to the waiter.

"No fish eggs for me, thanks." He turns to Yamcha with a smug smile. "Never did like it much." He looks over at Bulma and she smiles at his poker face. "Too slimy and salty for my tastes."

"And where do you live, Mr. Ouji?" Bunny inquires, intent on dragging him thru the mud.

"Right now my address is the RMS Titanic. After that is Kami's good grace." Salad is brought to the table, each member given their plate. Vegeta grabs the fish fork and Bulma gives him a look and picks up her salad fork. He looks down at his and finds the correct one. He picks it up.

"You find that sort of existence appealing?" she inquires, obviously appalled.

"Well, it is a big world and I want to see it all before I go. My parents were killed by an evil man and well, I have been taught that you need to live life to the fullest." Everyone is quiet. Chi-Chi raises her glass.

"Well said, Vegeta." Gracie raises his glass.

"Here, here!" Bulma smiles and raises her glass, looks at Vegeta.

"Living life to the fullest." Bunny looks annoyed that Vegeta has scored a point with the higher up people, tries to shoot him down again.

"How is it that you can travel so much?" He would have no right answer for that one, she was sure. He was penniless, an ugly duckling thinking he could swim among the swans. 

"I work my way from place to place. I won my ticket on titanic in a lucky hand at poker."

"All life is a game of luck," Gracie says.

"A real man makes his own luck, Archie." Bulma notices that Krillin is writing in his notebook, completely ignoring the conversation.

"Mr. Krillin, what are you doing?" She snatches the book and reads it. "You build the biggest ship in the world and hat hooks are what preoccupy you." The bald man smiles sheepishly.

"He knows every rivet in her, don't you Krillin?" Gracie askes with a smile on his lips.

"All three million of them." Krillin didn't seem to like being the center of attention, taking the book back from the blue haired woman with a blush gracing his cheeks.

"His blood and soul are in the ship. She may be mine on paper, but in the eyes of Kami, she belongs to Krillin."

"Your ship is a wonder. She is truly."

"Thank you, Bulma," he says humbly.


	8. Chapter 8

Yamcha and Bulma sit on the bright deck with a table separating them, food overflowing on their plates. Bulma picked at her food as Yamcha watched her with dark eyes, his expression unreadable. A young maid walks in and stiffly pours the coffee into the empty cups. She turns and leaves the couple to their alone time. The coldness in his gaze isn't lost on the blue haired woman as she can feel the waves of chill against her skin.

"I had hoped that you would have joined me last night," Yamcha whispered stiffly as he sipped on his coffee.

"I was exhausted," Bulma said as she stared at her food, her cerulean eyes dead. With a click of china Yamcha places his cup on its saucer.

"I am sure that your exertions below deck were no doubt demanding." Bulma looked up, her cerulean eyes flashing. She stiffens her back as she glares in annoyance at him.

"I see that you had that bastard of a manservant follow me." This seems to make Yamcha upset as he stands up and glowers at her.

"You will not behave like that ever again!" he roars. "Do you understand?" This ignites Bulma's short fuse and she stares up at him from her seat, her cerulean eyes cold and hate filled.

"I am not some foreman in your damned mills that you can command! I am your fucking fiancée-" Yamcha explodes, his aura bursting around him like an invisible flame. He swept the china off the table in one shocking motion before turning his cold eyes to her. In a flash he is standing over her, his fingers digging into her pale arms, but she lets out no noise as she stared him down even as her heart thumped wildly in her chest.

"Hai! Hai, you are! You are my fiancée, my wife in practice if not yet by law!" Bulma says nothing as he pulled her closer to him. "So you will honor me, as a wife is required to honor her husband!" He slams his mouth on hers, his tongue invading her warmth. Bulma squirms as she tries to fight off his approach. He pulls back and leaves the room as Felicia enters the room, her face pain in fear as she heads to her mistress's side. She knew that her mistress was in distress, though she tries to hide it well, dropping to her knees with a soft gasp.

"It's okay," Bulma murmured as she began to pick up the broken glass, her hands shaking with fear and frustration.

"Mistress," the young girls says as she takes the shattered pieces away from her. "I will get this." Bulma nodded numbly as she stood, some blood streaming from her fingers onto the ground as she leaves the now quiet room.

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Bunny's Suite

Light streams in through the open curtains as Bulma stands with her back to her mother, who is angry, as Bunny pulls on the strings as to tighten Bulma's corset. Bulma is used to this and stands there quietly, waiting for her mother to pull on that invisible leash she seems to think she welds.

"You are not to see that street rat," Bunny growled as she pulls again at the strings.

"Oh, mother, you will give yourself a nosebleed." Bunny shoves her knee into Bulma's back roughly as she tightens the corset further. Bulma lets out a gasp as the sudden pain, but straightens as her mother moves to the door and locks it.

"This is not a game!" Bunny hisses. "Our situation is precarious enough without you spurning your soon to be husband! The money is gone!" Yeah, the money was gone, but not because of her, but because her mother and her father had both been horrible with the money in the bank.

"You remind me every day!" Bulma stated as she turned on her mother.

"Your father left us nothing but a legacy of bad debts hidden by a good name and that name is the only card that we have to play!" Bulma looked away from her mother, her anger gone and replaced with frustration. Why should she be put in such a fucking hard spot because of them? "I do not understand you," Bunny mutters in anger. "This match with Yamcha will insure our future, our survival." Bulma frowns.

"How can you put this on my shoulders?" Bunny turns Bulma around and sees something that she has never seen in her mother's eyes… fear.

"Do you want to see me working as a washer woman? Is that what you want? Do you want our belongings sold at auction, our memories given away to others?" Bunny starts to whimper. "How can you be so selfish?" Bulma wants to say more to her mother, but with a sigh she turns from her mother once again.

"This is so unfair," she mutters.

"Of course it is unfair. We are women! This is our lot in life." Bunny continues to tighten the strings.

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First Class Dining Saloon

Captain Smith is leading a group in the hymn "Almighty Father Strong to Save." Bulma and Bunny sing in the middle of the group. Nappa stands in the back watching Bulma until he notices a commotion at the entry doors. Bunny looks out of the corner of her eye and notices Vegeta standing there being halted by two stewards. He is in his third class attire. He looks out of place among the complete splendor, yet he manages to look regal.

"You are not supposed to be here," one says as he stands in front of Vegeta.

"I was fucking in here last night! Don't you remember?" Vegeta is obviously frustrated with the pair of males when he sees Nappa walking toward him. "He will tell you!"

"Mr. Yamcha and Mrs. Briefs continue to be most indebted of your aid. They asked me to give you this in appreciation…" He pulls out two fifty dollar bills. Vegeta looked at the bills, something that would make his life so much easier than it was, but without hesitation he shoves Nappa's hand away. He doesn't care about the money, only of the blue haired woman that was in the other room. 

"I don't want money, I—" Nappa holds his hand up. His master was right to be suspicious of the male before him. He was after the man's fiancée and while she wasn't innocent in all of this, he would do as he was asked and remove the fox that was circling the hen house.

"I would like to remind you that your presence is not wanted here. You are a third class living in a first class world." Vegeta spots Bulma, but she does not see him, her body tense as she continued to sing as if nothing were wrong in her world when it was once against crashing around her ears. The only one that had been there to keep it up was the one that she could not be around, not on her mother's orders or Yamcha's.

"I just need to talk to Bulma for—"

"Gentlemen, please see that Mr. Ouji get back to where he belongs." He hands the pair each one of the bills. With a look at the bills they nod.

"Yes, sir." Nappa turns and heads back into the dining hall as the stewards remove Vegeta.

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Gymnasium

An Edwardian nautilus room: There are machine that are recognizable and some that we can't. A woman pedals on a stationary bicycle in a long dress. Every so often her dress gets stuck and she has to stop to untangle it. Mr. Krillin leads a small tour group, including Bulma, Bunny, and Yamcha. Yamcha settles down in a stationary rowing machine and begins to row, his strokes well trained.

"Reminds me of my Orange Star days," Yamcha remarks casually. B. J. Finch, the gym instructor, a bouncy man in white flannels approaches them eager to show off his modern equipment. He hits a switch and a machine with a saddle on it starts to undulate. Bulma puts her hand on it, curious.

"The electric horse is very popular. We even have an electric bull." He turns to Bunny. "Care to try your hand at rowing, ma'am?" Bunny looks at him in disgust.

"Don't be retarded. I can't think of a skill that is as useless to me as that." Mr. Krillin steps over to the group.

"The next stop is the bridge." He turns toward the door. "This way, please."

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AFT Well Deck, B-Deck and A-Deck

Vegeta walks with determination to the gate that separates the classes, Oolong and Radditz follow close behind him. He doesn't even look around him as he steps over the gate into second class territory.

"She is truly a goddess among the mortals, but is she really worth all this trouble?" Oolong inquires. He was not surprised that the woman had shut the door on the male before him since she was an upper class lady and while some of them were known to take a lover from the lower class that didn't mean they would keep them in their life. They were just a fun plaything that once they were done with they discarded as one would a piece of trash.

"You need to forget her. She has closed the door and is moving on with her life." Vegeta said nothing as he moves secretively to the wall below the A-Deck promenade.

"It was not her that was speaking. It was them." Glancing around him and then turns to Radditz. "Ready… go!" Radditz shakes his head resignedly, puts his hands together and crouches down. Vegeta climbs on his hands and gets boosted up to the next deck, where he manages to scramble nimbly over the railing and onto the First Class deck.

"He is not being logical I tell you," Oolong mutters.

"Amore is not logical," Radditz responds.

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A-Deck

A man is playing with his son, a six year old boy, who is spinning a top with a string. The man's black overcoat and hat are sitting on a deck chair nearby. Vegeta rushes over and snags the coat, his hair far too tall to work the hat. Quickly slipping on the coat he walks stiffly down the deck, his appearance almost that of gentleman.

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Bridge/ Chartroom

Gohan, the 21 year old Junior Wireless Operator, jostles in and skirts around Krillin's tour group to pass a small document to Captain Smith.

"Another ice warning, sir. This one is from the 'StarFire'."

"Thank you," Smith says as he looks at the warning in his hand. He slips into his pocket as he nods reassuringly to Bulma and the group.

"This is quite normal for this time of year. In fact I have just ordered the last boilers lit." Krillin scowls as he motions the group toward the door.

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Boat Deck/ Starboard Side

Krillin leads the group back from the bridge along the boat deck, several life boats litter the deck, but it is obvious that they are a few short.

"I did the sum in my head, Mr. Krillin and it seems that with the numbers you gave me earlier that there are not enough for everyone on board." Krillin smiles sadly.

"About half actually." He points to the deck on the left of them. "I put in these new davits to hold an extra row of boats, but some people thought that the deck would look too cluttered." He sighs sadly. "I was overruled." Yamcha smirks as he slaps a couple of the white and brown boats.

"Waste of space as it is on this unsinkable ship!" Bulma frowns at him before turning to Krillin.

"Sleep soundly, sweet Bulma. I have built you a good ship, strong and true. Everything will be great, I promise this to you." They turn and continue on their tour, but as they pass the gymnasium a man creeps up behind Bulma. He grabs her arm and carries her back into the gymnasium where she gets a good look at him.

"Vegeta?" she questions. Vegeta nods as he looks around the room and then out the glass where the group has disappeared. They are alone in the large room. "Vegeta, this is impossible! I can't see you ever again!" He takes her by her shoulders and pulls her close to him.

"Bulma, you are no party either, you are a spoiled little bitch, but under that you are a strong, pure hearted gir-"

"Vegeta, this is not ri—"

"No wait. Let me try to get this shit out. You are incredible … and I know that I have nothing to present you, but I am involved now. I can't leave you knowing what you and I desire are the same thing... knowing that you should be with me." Bulma looked at him in shock and sadness, the tears on the edge of her eyes waiting to fall.

"I'll be fine really. This is the way it-"

"I know that you are not all right. They have you in your coffin right now, the lid is being shut and if you don't run now then that fire that you have will be snuffed out. Bulma, I do not want you to loss that fire, that spirit." She was so different than her peers, so full of life that was slowly being sucked right out of her. He could only imagine that it was Yamcha, her fiancé, attempting to mold her into a willing party of the dead.

"Vegeta," Bulma says as she cups his face. "It is not up to you to save me." Vegeta nods as he takes her hands in his own.

"You are right. Only you can save yourself." She removed her hands from his stronger ones and turned to leave.

"Please, Vegeta, leave me alone." With that she was gone once again. Vegeta watched the door for a few seconds before he turned and left.

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First Class Lounge

The room is done in Louis Quinze Versaille style…

Bulma sits on a diva with a group of older women arrayed around her. She sits there silently as her mother's voice fills her head. She stares out into the room where a mother sits with her four year old daughter who is wearing white gloves to match her frilly white dress. As the girl picks up the tea cup the mother corrects her on her posture and the way that she is handling the cup. Bulma now sees herself when she was younger, her expression serious as she tries to please her mother who is showing her how to eat a small cookie in her own hands. Her cerulean eyes blink as she comes back to reality and then calmly, deliberately she pours her lukewarm cup of tea in her lap. Her mother turns to her, her expression grim

"Oh, look what I've done."

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Vegeta stands on the apes of the bow railing, his favorite spot on the large ship. He closes his eyes, letting the chilly wind clear his head, but he can't stop thinking about Bulma, her cerulean eyes filling his vision and her soft voice filling his ears.

"Vegeta," a familiar voice says. Vegeta turns and there she is. He can hardly believe his eyes. "I changed my mind." He smiles at her, drinking her in, almost afraid that she will disappear or that he will wake up to find it all a dream. Her pale cheeks are red from the chilly wind that is blowing her azure hair around her face. "Radditz said that you might be-"

"Come here." Bulma complies with his command, her feet bringing her closer to him and he puts his hands on her waist, almost like he is about to kiss her. "Close your eyes," he whispers softly. She does as he asks, his hands turning her away from him to face where he was moments before. He sandwiches her between him and the white railing, her body warm against his own. He runs his finger up her waist making her breath catch as his fingers brush the sides of her breasts. He moves his hands over her arms and down to her small hands before taking them in his own and raises them until she is standing with her arms outstretched on each side. When he lowers his hands, her arms stay up… like wings. "Okay. Open them." Bulma gasps as she opens her eyes to see that there is nothing in her vision but water. It looks like they are soaring above the water, like there is no ship at all.

"I'm flying!" She leans forward and arches her back causing her to wobble a little bit. Vegeta places his hands on her small waist to steady her. Bulma shivers a bit as the feeling of him holding her.

"Come Josephine in my flying machine…" Bulma closes her eyes, feeling herself floating weightless above the endless sea. She smiles dreamily and then leans back, her back leaning against his hard chest. He shifts his hands to touch hers, their fingers intertwine. Moving slowly, their fingers brush against each other, caressing each other like the bodies of lovers. Vegeta tips his face forward into her blowing hair, letting the scent of her wash over him. Bulma turns to face him, her lips brushing up against his as the dusk turns to night, the cool air cascading over them yet not touching them. In the crow's nest high above them lookout Fredrick Fleet nudges his mate, Reginald Lee, pointing down at the pair as they watch them kiss against the bow of the ship.

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Bulma's Suite

Vegeta looks around the large room filled with elegant curtains and stylish furnishings. He places his sketchbook and drawing materials on one of the nearby marble tables. Bulma comes in after him and locks the door.

"Is this light okay?"

"This is fine," Vegeta says before noticing the paintings that filled the room. "Monet!" He crouches down next to the paintings stacked against the wall. "I saw him once… through a hole in this garden fence in France." She walks past him to the adjoining walk in wardrobe closet. He looks at the ugly green safe in fascination as she starts to work the combination. She notices his look and laughs.

"Yamcha insists on lugging this Kami awful looking thing everywhere." Vegeta scoffs.

"Should we be expecting him any time soon?"

"Not as long as the brandy holds out." With a click the safe unlocks and then removes the large necklace. Turning she hands it to Vegeta. He eyes it nervously.

"What is it?" He asks as he holds it to the light. "Sapphire?" Bulma shakes her head.

"A diamond. A very rare diamond called the Heart of the Ocean." He is still looking at the diamond in amazement. He has never seen something like this, let alone held one in his hands. "I want you to draw me like one of your French girls wearing this." She smiles at him, her smile shy almost. "Only this." He looks up at her in shock. Vegeta lays out his tools and then positions the couch that he wants her to lay on. Just as he finishes laying out the pillows Bulma enters the room, a powder blue silk robe covering her naked form. She smiles at him her long hair down and wild looking.

"The last thing that I look forward to is another picture of me looking like a damned porcelain doll and as a paying customer I expect to get what I want." She hands him a twenty before stepping back and untying the kimono. Her face turns a light pink as the kimono slides to the floor leaving her exposed to his dark gaze. The blue stone around her neck shimmers in the light of the lamps as it lies between her creamy breasts. Bulma lowers herself onto the couch like a cat getting comfortable in its sunny spot. She had never been so exposed before anyone before this night and while she trusted him she felt vulnerable to his gaze.

"Um… bend your… good. Eyes to me. That's it." Vegeta then begins to sketch. Seconds later he drops his pencil and with a curse picks it up, her laughter filling his ears.

"Are you blushing?" she inquires with a giggle. "I can't imagine Monet blushing." Vegeta scoffs.

"He does landscape." Despite Vegeta's nervousness, he draws with perfect strokes and what emerges is the best thing that he has ever done. Her pose is languid, her hands beautiful, and her eyes radiate energy. Bulma, wearing her kimono, leans on Vegeta's shoulder as he signs his picture.

"Date it please. I want to remember this night forever." Vegeta does as she requests and then hands her the picture. Bulma places the picture in the safe next to the necklace along with a small note. The safe closes with a clunk and the pair hug each other.

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First Class Smoking Room

Yamcha hangs out with some of the older fat cats, all of them sitting around a table next to a large fireplace. The talk is loud and the smoke fills the table as some of the men put down their glasses of brandy. Yamcha looks up and notices that Nappa is approaching him. He excuses himself and walks over to Nappa.

"None of the stewards have seen her and her mother recalls that she left from teatime, but has not seen her since." Yamcha growls low in his throat knowing something that he does not want to believe. Would she walk away from him for another man and not just any man, a male that was so poor that he couldn't even afford a place to live?

"Find her Kami damn it!" he hissed before heading back to the group. Nappa grunts as he leaves the room and heads toward the upper class halls.

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We look out onto the Atlantic as Titanic glides across an unnatural sea, black and calm as a pool of oil. The night skies glitter above the doomed ship. A meteor traverses across the black skies leaving a bright line across the heavens. On the bridge Captain Smith and Quartermaster Hitchins stand watching the waters. Hitchins hands Smith some tea with a lemon before leaving the area. Second officer Lightoller enters the room and joins Smith looking out at the black ice that the Atlantic has become.

"Don't think that I have ever seen such a flat calm in all my years at sea," Lightoller remarks. Smith nods as he takes a sip of his tea.

"Yes, like a mill pond. Not a breath of wind."

"Bergs are going to be harder to see with no water breaking at the base." Smith nods again before turning and leaving the room. He didn't sound too concerned with that threat hanging in the air, assured that the ship is as impregnable as he has been told. If they were to hit an iceberg it would be so trivial as they continued onward on their course.

"Maintain speed and heading, Mr. Lightoller. Wake me if anything is wrong."

"Yes sir."

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Bulma and Yamcha's Suite

Vegeta waits as Bulma enters the room, now fully dressed in a light pink gown that skims the ground. Vegeta smirks at her, but frowns as they hear a key in the lock. Bulma grabs his hand and tugs him into her room. They continue on until they get outside the rooms. Nappa enters the sitting room and hearing a door opening runs through Yamcha's room toward hers.

"Miss Bulma?" He knew he heard the door! There was no way that in the silence of the room he could have misheard such a loud sound.

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Corridor Outside the Suite

Bulma and Vegeta scamper out of her stateroom closing the door behind them. She tugs him down the corridor toward the B deck foyer. They get halfway there when Nappa bursts out of the sitting room, his face is flushed in anger as he darts after them. A valet sees the pair and hustles after them.

"Come on!" Bulma urges as Vegeta and her break into a run. Some women gasp and some men stand slack jawed at the mismatched pair. They run past the stairs and into an elevator where a young man stands. Upon seeing the two he is shocked out of his quiet reverie. "Take us down!" Bulma commands.

"Quickly!" Vegeta booms. Vegeta closes the steel doors as the operator scrambles to comply. Nappa makes it there as the elevator starts to descend. With a curse he slams a fist into the gate.

"Damn it!" Bulma smirks as she throws Nappa the bird, a giggle slipping past her lips at his irate look. Vegeta and the operator gape at her in awe and shock.

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F-Deck

The corridors down here are smaller and are just white, no pictures or niceties. Bulma leans against a wall as she and Vegeta catch their breath.

"Pretty tough for a valet, this guy." Bulma shakes her head.

"He is an ex-Pinkerton. Yamcha's father hired him to keep him out of trouble. Seems that Yamcha liked to visit the less reputable parts of town."

"Kind of like what we are doing right no- uh oh!" Seems that Nappa has spotted them from a corridor nearby. He roars as he charges toward them. Vegeta and Bulma take off around a corner into a blind alley. There is only one door and it marked CREW ONLY. Vegeta looks over his shoulder before he throws the door open. They enter a fan room with no other way out but a ladder going down. Vegeta latches the dead bolt on the door and Nappa runs right into it with a thud and then silence. The laugh as they walk to the ladder. "After you, m'lady."


	9. Chapter 9

Bulma landed on the ground at the end of the ladder, Vegeta landing next to her with a clack of his shoes. They look around them in amazement. The room looks like Hell incarnate with the roaring furnaces letting off an eerie red glow that fills the large chamber. Blackened figures move around in the smoky atmosphere. With a laugh the pair runs the length of the boiler room, dodging stokers and trimmers with their wheelbarrows of coal. Someone yells at them and another tries to chase them, but the pair have more energy and like to teenagers they are gone. They find a small corner where no one can see them and in the darkness Vegeta bends down and catches Bulma's lips in a crushing kiss. The room fills with a thunderous roar but the lovers do not even hear it.

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First Class Smoking Room

Yamcha sits at his card game still sipping brandy, but it is apparent that his mind is not on the game. He glances down at his gold pocket watch and scowls. The men around him banter about mindless things as he looks around the room. He is wondering what his man has found, if Bulma is with the male that he expressed his distain for.

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Boiler Room Six

Vegeta and Bulma enter the large cargo filled room. Cars and boxes litter the much colder room. Bulma hugs herself, the sweat on her body drying with the chill. They come upon William Carter's brand new Renault touring car lashed down to a pallet. It looked almost like a coach from the fairy tales with its golden trim and headlamps nicely set off by its black coloring. Bulma climbed into the dark coach and sits on the black, plush leather seating. There are crystal vases in the back on each side of the seat with a red rose in each of them. Vegeta climbs into the front seat and with a smirk rolls down the window that separates the driver from the passengers.

"Where are we off to?" he inquires in a phony British accent.

Bulma leans forward and kissing his firm cheek she whispers, "To the stars." Vegeta looks confused but that changes to surprise as she yanks him into the back seat where he lands next to her. Their breathing sounds loud in the empty bay.

"Are you sure?" he inquires softly as he leans closer to her. With a shaky nod he kisses her softly on the lips. As they grow bolder Bulma begins to do away with his clothes as he follows suite, the pair of them enjoying their moment alone. Soon they are sitting exposed, his muscular body on her petite, slimmer body, her pale, milky skin far lighter than his own tan skin. He softly kisses down her body, his mouth leaving a trail of want down her shivering body, her body flushing with pleasure. Vegeta touches her pert, pearl nipple with his tongue tenderly causing a moan to escape her pink lips. Bulma's long fingers intertwine in his dark, flame like hair. She is new to this form of emotion, but aches to make him feel as she is feeling. As if sensing her want he stops what he is doing. He takes one of her hands out of his hair and places it on his erect manhood. Bulma looks down at him, her fingers caressing his velvet skin. Vegeta groans causing Bulma to smirk. Vegeta moves down, Bulma's hand falling from his member. She groans at the loss, but then a moan escapes her lips as his tongue finds her entrance. He wants to make this as good for her as he can, his mouth moving to work her body, her juices coating his lips.

"V-Vegeta," she whimpers as the pleasure builds up. He continues his ministrations causing her to cry out and whimper several more times before she begins to convulse. "Vegeta!" she cries out. Within seconds he is on top of her and then in her. Pumping into her he breaks her barrier. Bulma screams out, but it is unheard by anyone but the pair. Vegeta continues his assault making Bulma once again orgasm along with him. The pair lay there, both in their own world of bliss as the world around them seems to fade into the background.

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Wireless Room

Sparks fly as Senior Wireless Operator Goten rapidly keys out a message while Junior Operator Gohan looks through a huge stack of messages.

"This fucking sucks," Gohan whines as his partner continues to send out a message. "Look at this crap!" he says as he holds up a note before reading it out loud. "He wants his private train to meet him. Bloody hell!" Beeping fills the room, the noise deafening.

"Kami damn it!" Goten curses. "That damn idiot from the Californian!" Cursing some more he types out a rebuke.

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Wireless Room- Californian

Wireless Operator Even pulls his earphones off his ear as the Titanic's sparks deafen him. He translates it for Third Officer Tanget.

"Fucking asshole. I try to tell him about the ice and he tells me to go fuck myself and to shut up." The other man rolls his eyes.

"What is he sending now?" Tanget inquires as more beeping fills the room.

"No seasickness. Good Poker." With a sigh the younger man stands up. "That is it for me. I am shutting down." Heading out of the room Tanget heads out to the deck, his green eyes looking out onto the waters as the large ship stops fifty yards from the edge of a field of pack ice and icebergs stretching as far as the eye can see.

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Hold #2

In the cargo room we find the couple still laying in the car, their bodies intertwined, both nude under his makeshift blanket. Both of their faces are flushed in the afterglow of love making. Bulma looks at him in wonderment, her cerulean eyes all aglow with love, an emotion that she has never felt until now, not even for her own mother.

"I'm sorry," his whispered. "I did not want to hurt you." Bulma places his head on her exposed breasts and holds onto him. She doesn't care about the minute pain when he brought her to such heights, as if she had truly gone to the stars with his touches and the pleasure that came from his taking her most precious gift. She would allow no one else this, not even the one that she was betrothed to. She would break it off the moment they made it to their destination and no one would change her mind!!

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Crow's Nest

"You can smell ice, you know, when it is near." His friend looks at him with a weird look.

"Bull shit!"

"I can!"

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Boiler Room Six

Two stewards stand before a stoker who is obviously telling the pair where Bulma and Vegeta headed off to. The stewards head off into the direction of the cargo bay where the two lovers lay.

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Yamcha and Bulma's Suite

Yamcha stands in front of the open safe, his face violent, yet calm. He is staring at the picture of Bulma, her clothes gone and then at the note that lay with it.

Darling, now you can keep us both locked in your safe, Bulma.

Nappa glances over his shoulder at the drawing. Yamcha punches him in the jaw as he throws the picture in the safe, the note falling to the ground.

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Hold #2

The two stewards enter the cargo hold and look around until they spot the fogged up windows of the Renault. With a grin the first one points it out to the other one. They head for the vehicle and with a look toward each other the first one whips the door open.

"There you a-" his voice dies as he sees the empty backseat.

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Crow's Nest- Forward Well Deck

Bulma and Vegeta come through a crew door, both of them laughing so hard that they can hardly stand. They stand there in each other's arms, their breaths linger together in the freezing cold, but neither of them notice as their eyes clash in passion and their lips follow.

"When this ship docks I am getting off with you." Vegeta looked at her in surprise, not sure if she truly means it or she is just blowing smoke because of their adrenaline.

"Bulma, this is crazy."

"I know that it does not make any sense, but I want to be with you and that is what I trust." Vegeta pulled her to him, estatic that she really wants to be with him after this, and in the fierce embrace he kisses her roughly.

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In the crow's nest Fleet nudges Lee.

"Look at that would you."

"They are bloody warmer than we are."

"I would rather not be a fag if that is what it takes to get warmer." They both share a nice laugh over that before Lee notices that Fleet face turns a pale shade.

"What is the matter?" His friend points in front of them. With a glance over his shoulder he notices the black mass before the large ship.

"Oh my fucking Kami!" Fleet reaches past Lee and rings the bell three times as Lee grabs the phone. He waits until seconds later a lazy voice answers the phone.

"Is someone there?"

"Yes. Do you see something?"

"Iceberg dead ahead!" the urgency in his voice makes the other man jump. Hanging up the phone he calls to Murdoch.

"Iceberg dead ahead!" Murdoch sees it and rushes to the engine room telegraph.

As he signals to the engine room he yells out, "Hard to starboard!"

"The helm is hard over," Moody yells back.

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Chief engineer Bell stares the telegraph as it clangs the new order. Bell throws his soup down and runs to the railing.

"Full astern! FULL ASTERN!" The engineers and the greasers like madmen to close the steam valves and start braking the mighty propeller shafts to a stop.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Boiler Room Six

Lead stoker Fredrick and second engineer James stand next to the panel as it turns red and the 'stop' indicator come on.

"Shut all the dampers! Shut them up!"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

From the bridge Murdoch watches the burg grow closer as his fear clenches his heart. He may die in this instant.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the crow's nest Fredrick braces himself as Lee looks at the mass of darkness as the ship slowly turns away from the burg.

Kruuuuuuuunch!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In hold two the stewards struggle as thunder sounds in the room and then the hull breaks, sea pouring into the ship as the pair runs for the stairs in fear.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Radditz wakes up as the sound wakes him from his sleep and then he is tossed from his bed as the burg shakes the ship.

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In boiler room six Barrett and Hesketh stagger as the rolling of thunder fills the room, all the workers stop at the sound just seconds before water begins to fill the room.

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Vegeta and Bulma break their kiss as the ship shakes. They look up as the iceberg blocks their vision of the night, the area around them dark from the eclipse. They jump back just seconds before chunks the size of their heads fall inches in front of them.

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One the bridge Murdoch rings the watertight door alarm. He quickly throws the switch that closes them. Lights begin to fill a small map of the ship.

"Hard to port!"

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In a room full of water vapor Barrett and Hesketh run as the door alarm goes off.

"Go lads! Go!" He waits for the other men to run through the door before he slide under it, the door coming down like a guillotine.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vegeta and Bulma rush to the starboard rail in time to see the berg moving down the side of the ship, the ship still shuddering in the aftermath of the iceberg's hit.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In his stateroom surrounded by piles of plans Andrews looks up from his notebook at the sound of his light fixture as the cut-crystal twinkles like a wind chime. He feels the shudder run through the ship and we see it in his face, like he is in pain. There is too much of his soul in the ship for him not to have felt its mortal wound.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the first class smoking room Gracie watches his highball vibrate on the table.

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In the Palm Court, with its high arched windows, Chi Chi Son holds up her drink to a passing waiter.

"Get some ice, please." Silently, a moving wall of ice fills the window behind her. She doesn't see it as it disappears astern.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the Crow's Nest Fleet turns to Lee.

"That was close," he says with a sigh. Lee punches him in his arm with a frown.

"Smell ice, can you? Fucking Christ!"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bridge

Alarm bells still fill the air with their noise as Murdoch stands there in shock. He can't seem to believe what has just transpired; it is obvious by his face. He turns to Moody, his movements stiff.

"Note the time. Enter it in the log." Captain Smith rushes out of his cabin, tucking his shirt in as he goes.

"What was that?" he inquires Murdock.

"An iceberg, sir. I put her hard to starboard and run the engines full astern, but it was too late. She hit… and I-"

"Close the emergency do-"

"They are closed."

"Find the carpenter and get him to sound the ship."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

G-Deck

In steerage, Radditz comes out into the hall to see what is going on. He notices dozens of rats running toward him in the corridor and the water that follows them. He jumps aside as the creatures run by.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In his room Oolong gets out of his top bunk in the dark and drops down to the floor with a splash.

"What the fuck?" He snaps on the light as the other members of the room wake up. With shocked eyes they look at the three inches of water covering their apartment floor. He pulls the door open and walks out into the corridor just as Radditz comes running past him, yelling something in Japanese. The pair start pounding on doors, getting everyone up and out as the alarm blares out instructions in several languages.

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First Class Corridor- A Deck

Some people have come out into the corridor, most of them in robes and slippers. A pair of stewards hurries along, reassuring them that nothing is amiss, but this is banished as Mr. Krillin brushes past them, a look of death on his face as he hauls an armload of the ship's plans.

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Vegeta and Bulma are leaning over the starboard railing, both of them looking at the hull of the ship. Vegeta shakes his head.

"I don't see anything."

"Could it have damaged the ship?" Bulma asks as the stand up straight.

"It didn't seem that much of a bump so I am sure that we're okay." Behind them two boys kick a huge hunk of ice around like a ball, both of them are laughing oblivious to the danger.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Radditz and Oolong are in the crowd of steerage men clogging the corridors, most of them holding suitcases and duffel bags.

"If this is the way that the rats were heading then that's good enough for me."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bruce Ismay, dressed in pajamas under the topcoat, hurries along the corridor heading for the bridge. An oblivious steward is coming from the other direction is rustling passengers back into their rooms.

"There is no cause for alarm. Please get back in your rooms." He is stopped by Yamcha and Nappa. "Please sir, go back to your room, there is -"

"I have been robbed!" Yamcha growls, visibly upset. Get the Master at Arms right away!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bridge- Chartroom

Captain Smith studies the commutates, Krillin behind him.

"A five degree list in less than ten minutes." The ship's carpenter enters from behind the two men, out of breath and clearly unnerved.

"She is taking on water fast!" Ismay enters, clearly annoyed at the stop.

"Why have we stopped?" he growls, his face pink with anger.

"We've struck an iceberg, or did you not feel that damned shudder?" Smith growls in frustration. This seemed to make Ismay's expression change to one of disinterest.

"Do you think that the ship is seriously damaged?"

"Excuse me," Smith says as he brushes past the awkward male while glaring at him. Krillin and Hutchinson follow close behind him.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vegeta and Bulma come up the stairs from the well deck. A group of gentlemen watch as the couple climbs over the locked gate. A moment later Smith rounds the corner, followed still by Krillin and Hutchinson. The three men, faces grim, brush past Vegeta and Bulma, Krillin barely glances at her.

"Can you shore up?" Smith inquires. Hutchinson looks at him grimly.

"Not unless the pumps get ahead." The inspection party goes down the stairs to the well deck.

"It's bad," Vegeta whispers to her.

"We have to tell Mother and Yamcha." Vegeta sighs.

"Now it is worse," Vegeta mumbles.

"Come with me Vegeta. I jump you jump… Right?" Vegeta nods. The pair entered the ship through the B-deck entrance. They walk across the foyer and into the corridor where Nappa is waiting.

"We've been looking for you, Miss Bulma." Nappa follows, undetected by either of them, moves close to Vegeta and slips the diamond necklace into the pouch of his overcoat. Yamcha and Bunny wait in the sitting room of Bulma and Yamcha's suite, along with the Master at Arms. Two stewards stand in silence as Vegeta and Bulma enter the room. Bunny closes her robe as she notices Vegeta.

"Something serious has happened." Yamcha nods as he approaches his fiancé.

"That is right. Two things of mine have disappeared tonight and now that one is back, I have a good idea of where the other one is." Bulma glares at her fiancé. "Search him." Vegeta looks at them in disbelief.

"This is bull shit," he says as Nappa pulls at his coat making Vegeta shrug out of it so that the Master at Arms can pat him down.

"You can't be serious! We're in the middle of an emergency and you want to -" Steward Barnes pulls the Heart of the Ocean out of Vegeta's coat.

"Is this it?" he inquires as he holds it up. Bulma is stunned and needless to say, Vegeta is as well.

"That is it." They hand him the necklace as the Master at Arms handcuffs Vegeta.

"Don't believe this load of crap! Don't!" Bulma looks uncertain, her heart telling her one thing while her brain is looking at the facts. He was alone in the room while she changed, but it had been such a short amount of time.

"He couldn't have."

"Of course he could have. Easy enough for a professional. He memorized the combination while you opened the safe." Her brain telling her something else. 

Bulma at the safe her eyes meeting Vegeta's as he stands behind her, watching.

"But I was with him the whole damn time!" she says forcefully. Yamcha leans down close to her ear.

"Maybe he did it while you were putting your clothes back on," he says coldly.

"They put it in my pocket!" Nappa holds Vegeta's coat, a smirk on his face.

"It's not even your pocket," he says with a 'cat caught the canary' look on his face. "Property of A.L. Ryerson." He shows it to the Master at Arms. He looks at the label.

"That was reported stolen today."

"I was going to give it back! Bulma-" Bulma feels betrayed, hurt and confused. She turns away from him as tears build up in her face. He continues to yell at her. "Don't listen to them! I didn't do this! You know that I would never do this!" Bunny puts a comforting hand on her daughter's shoulder as Vegeta is taken out of the room.

"Why do women believe men?"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Back in the chartroom Krillin unrolls a big drawing of the ship onto the table. This one is a side elevation, showing all the watertight bulkheads. His hands are shaking as Smith and the rest of the group hover over him.

"When do you think that we ca-"

"Shut up!" Krillin yells his hands and body shaking with anger. He turns to the drawing and begins to point at the picture. "Water fourteen feet above the keel in ten minutes. In the forepeak… in all three holds… and in boiler room six." Smith nods in agreement. "Five compartments. She can stay afloat with four breached, but not five. There is no stopping it."

"The pumps-"

"The pumps will buy you minutes, but from this moment on, no matter what we do, Titanic will flounder."

"This ship with not sink!" Ismay yelled. Krillin turning to him.

"She is made of bloody iron! She can sink and she will. It is a mathematical certainty." Smith looks like he has just been punched in the gut, his face sunken in matter of seconds.

"How much time?" Smith inquires as Ismay reels, now in a corner reliving what he thought was to be his dream is now warping into a nightmare.

"An hour, two at the most." Smith turns to Murdoch.

"How many aboard?"

"Two thousand two hundred souls on board, sir," the other man says gravely. Smith turns to his employer.

"I believe you will get your headlines, Mr. Ismay."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Krillin is striding along the boat deck, seamen and officers running to uncover the boats as he passes. The commotion is horrendous as the men fumble and fight with the davits. He notices on of them and yells over the roar of the steam.

"Turn to the right! Pull the falls taunt before you uncheck." With a growl of frustration he yells out. "Have you never had a boat drill?!"

"Not with these new davits, sir!" He looks around in disgust as the crew continue to fumble with the new davits. Some passengers walk out onto the deck, curious of all the noise. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

From inside Yamcha and Bulma's suite we hear voices as knocking sounds on the other doors in the corridor.

"I had better go and dress," Bunny says as she leaves to go to her own room. Yamcha turns dead cold eyes on Bulma. She looks blankly ahead of her as he crosses over to her and slaps her firmly across her face.

"Seems that you will sleep with anyone but your own fiancé, you little slut!" Bulma remains unfazed. "Look at me you little-" There is a knock on the door and an urgent voice. The door opens and their steward pops his head in.

"Sir, I've been instructed to request that you put on your lifebelt and come up to the boat deck."

"Get out!" The steward pays him no heed as he hands them lifebelts from on top of a dresser.

"I am sorry about the inconvenience, Mr. Yamcha, but it is the order from the captain. Please dress warmly; it is cold out there tonight." He hands a lifebelt to Bulma and is on his way out the door.

"This is fucking ridiculous!"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A pair of stewards run down the halls of the steerage berthing. They bang on doors while the other opens them.

"Everybody up! Lifebelts on!" People come out of their room looking perplexed. Some do not understand what all the noise is about and go back into their room to sleep.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Wireless Room

"CQD, sir?" Phillips inquires in shock.

"That is right. Tell whoever responds that we are going down by the head and need immediate assistance." Smith hurries out.

"Fucking hell."

"Maybe you should try that new distress call…S.O.S."

"It may be our only chance to use it." Phillips laughs in spite of all that is going on and starts sending out the signal over and over again.

Dit dit dit, da da da, dit dit dit…

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Krillin looks around in amazement as the deck is empty except for the crew fumbling with the davits.

"Where are the passengers?"

"They have all gone back inside. Too damn cold and noisy for them." Krillin looks at his pocket watch and heads for the foyer entrance. A large number of first class passengers have gathered near the staircase. They are all getting indignant about the confusion and being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night. Chi Chi looks around until she notices a steward walking by and snagging him she inquires as to what is going on.

"What the fuck is going on here?"

"Sorry, ma'am. I will find out." He stumbles away, tripping on the stairs as he runs away from the irate woman. Music begins to drift from the first class lounge a few yards away. We see Yamcha trailed by Bulma and Bunny.

"Just like the damned English to do everything by the book." Bunny steps up next to him.

"There is no need for such language." She turns to a maid next to her. "Go back and turn the heater on in my room so that it will not be too cold when we get back." Krillin enters the magnificent room, which he knows is doomed. Bulma standing nearby sees his heartbroken expression and she walks over to him, Yamcha following her.

"I saw the iceberg, Mr. Krillin and I see it in your eyes. Please tell me the truth."

"The ship will sink." Yamcha looks at him in shock.

"You are certain?" Krillin nods.

"Yes. In an hour or two…all this," he says as he waves his hand around the large room, "will be at the bottom of the Atlantic."

"My Kami," Yamcha whispers.

"Please tell only the ones that you must. I do not want to cause a panic." He looks down at Bulma, her blue eyes wide. "You remember what I told you about the boats?"

"Yes, I understand." Krillin leaves them and goes around to the other passengers telling them to put on their lifebelts and to head to the boats.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the Master at Arms office Nappa and the Master at Arms are handcuffing Vegeta to a 4" water pipe as a crewman rushes in anxiously, his eyes wide.

"You're wanted by the Purser, sir." Nappa waves him away.

"I will keep an eye on him." Showing the other man his Colt .45 under his coat the other man nods and leaves the two men alone.


	10. Chapter 10

The junior wireless operator runs up to Smith who has been waiting for good news since finding out about the sinking of his ship.

"Carpathian says that they are making 17 knots, full steam for them, sir."

"Is she the only one?" Smith inquires, feeling disgruntled with the lack of help that they were able to reach, all the people getting into lifeboats in the fight for the life because of several errors in judgement and relying on him to get them to safety.

"The only one close. She can be here in four hour-"

"Four bloody hours?!" he asks in shock. This makes his face break even more as he realizes what is happening. He has doomed a whole ship full of his fellow man to death. He turns away from the younger man and looks out onto the blackness. "Thank you." The other man leaves and Smith sighs. "My God."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Boat Deck

Lightoller has his boats swung out. He stands in a group of uncertain passengers in all states of dress and undress; most of them wear no shoes and others are in stockings. The maître of the restraint is in a top hat and overcoat while others are still in evening wear and others still in bathrobes and kimonos. Women are wearing lifebelts over silk gowns topped off with stoles. Others have brought jewelry, others books and some even have small dogs with them. Lightoller sees Smith heading toward him and quickly goes over to him.

"Hadn't we better get the women and children into the boats, sir?" Smith just nods, the spirit out of him. The other man stared at the man that he has worked under for years and sees the horrific truth in his eyes. The steam around them mixed with the chatter from the passengers has disappeared as Lightoller realizes what he must do. "Start loading the women and children!" The awful noise of the steam abruptly cuts off, leaving a sudden unnatural silence in which Lightoller's voice echoes in the darkness. Wallace Hartley raises his violin and begins to play, the rest of the band joining in. They have assembled just outside the first class entrance where all the boats are being loaded. "Ladies, please step into the boat." He looks out at the group, all the women cowering back. Finally one woman steps forward, her body shaking but she steps out onto the boat.

"You watch! They will put us off in these silly little boats to freeze and we'll be back on board by breakfast." Yamcha and Bulma with Bunny tagging along come out the door by the band.

"Wait! I left my brooch. I must have it!" She turns to go back into the ship, but Yamcha reaches out and stops her. The firmness of his hold surprises her.

"Stay here, Bunny." She looks up at him and upon seeing his expression knows fear for the first time.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It is chaos, with stewards pushing their way through the steerage's narrow corridors clogged with people carrying their personal belongings. Children run along next to their parents. Some of them have lifebelts on while others just carry one or have none.

"I told the stupid shits no luggage." He throws up his hands at the sight of a family loaded down with cases and bag, completely blocking the corridor. Oolong and Radditz push past the stewards going the other way. They reach the crowd gathered at the bottom of the main third class stairwell. Radditz notices Launch along with her family waiting with their suitcases. He goes to her and with a hug they stand there with the other steerage waiting. Oolong pushes to where he can see what is holding up the large group of families. There is a steel gate across the top of the stairs with several stewards and seamen on the other side.

"Stay calm, please. It is not time to go to the boats yet." Oolong stands next to an Irish woman standing with her two small children and their battered luggage.

"What are we doing, mummy?" the boy inquires.

"We are waiting, dear. When they finish with the first class people then they will be loading us on the boats and we want to be ready, don't we." The pig knew it was a lie. They were already loading the boats and when all the first class people were on them there would be none left for them to use to escape their fate.

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Boat seven is less than half full, with 28 aboard on a boat made for 65.

"Lower away! By the left and right together, steady lads!" The boat lurches as the falls start to pay out through the pulley blocks. The women gasp and the boat descends, swaying and jerking. The passengers are terrified as they look down at the sixty foot drop.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vegeta watches as the water outside his porthole rises over the glass. Nappa sits on the edge of a desk with a grim look on his face.

"You know… I believe that this ship is sinking." He crosses to Vegeta, a smug look on his face now. "I have been asked to give you this small token of our appreciation…" He punches Vegeta in his stomach, the noise of bones breaking as he steps back. "Compliments of Mr. Yamcha." He flips the key to the handcuffs in the air and then slips it into his pocket. He leaves Vegeta, leaving the door open.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yamcha and Bulma approach officer Lightoller who is loading boat six.

"Women and children only!" He sees Yamcha. "Sorry sir, no men yet." Another rocket bursts overhead, lighting the crowd. Startled faces turn upward, fear in everyone's eyes. Daniel Marvin has his camera set up, cranking away… hoping to get an exposure off the rocket's light. Molly is posed in front of the scene at the boats.

"You are afraid, darling. Scared to death. That's it!" Bulma watches the farewells as husbands said goodbye to their wives and children. Lovers and friends parted with last hugs and kisses. In the distance Chi Chi coaxes a scared woman into the boat.

"You heard him. Get in the boat!" Bunny straightens her dress.

"I hope that the lifeboats are seated according to class and that they are not too cr-" Bulma whirls on her mother.

"Shut up!" Bunny looks at her daughter in shock. "Don't you understand? The water is freezing and there are not enough lifeboats for everyone. Half the people with die tonight." Bulma couldn't believe how her mother was acting and yet she knew this was how her mother was. She only cared for her station and not the other lives that seemed to disgust her. They were all lives that deserved a chance to live and with the lack of needed lifeboats they would be lost to the cold waters quickly filling the large ship.

"Not the better half." Bulma turns to Yamcha with his satisfied smirk. Then it hits her. Vegeta is third class. He doesn't stand a chance. At the sound of another rocket lighting the skies Bulma smacks Yamcha shocking the young male.

"You unimaginable bastard!" she spat, for the first time standing up to him and his obnoxious behavior in the most public way.

"Come on Bunny. There are the first class seats right up here. That's it," Chi Chi coaxes the older woman into the lifeboat. She looks around for other women who might need a push. "Come on Bulma, you are next." Bulma shakes her head as she steps back.

"Bulma, get in the boat." She can't do it! She can't doom the man she loves with her whole heart to be doomed because she was too confused to stand up for him! It was her fault that he had been taken away, placed in a cell more than likely and awaiting his death. She would rather die so that he could live a long life. She should have walked away from him after that first meeting because if she had then he wouldn't be where he was now.

"Good bye, mother." Bunny could do nothing as her daughter moved away from her. Yamcha grabbed for her arm and with a quick jerk Bulma freed herself. Yamcha followed her and grabbed her again. He whirls her to face him before slamming her against the boat's wall.

"Where are you going? To him?" he inquires at her face. "Is that it? You want to be a whore to that gutter rat?" Bulma spits in his face, her whole body shuddering from the pain of hitting the hard metal, but there was another shudder, one of anger aimed at the male before her.

"I'd rather be his whore than your wife!" He clenched her arm in his grasp and yanked her toward the boats. Bulma pulled out a hairpin from the depths of her blue hair before jabbing him with it. He lets her go with a curse, blood leaking from his new wound. She disappears into the crowd without a look back to see if she was being followed.

"Lower away!"

"Bulma! BULMA!"

"Stuff a sock in it, Bunny. She'll get one later."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bulma runs through clusters of people until she came upon two proper looking gentlemen. Glancing back and seeing a furious looking Yamcha still after her she runs to the two men.

"That man tried to take advantage of me in the crowd," she cries as she points to Yamcha. Appalled they turn to Yamcha and grab him. With a smile Bulma runs through the first class entrance. It takes him only seconds to break free from the two males. He reaches the entrance only to be pushed back by a knot of people. Yamcha finally manages to get past the people and into the ship. Unfortunately Bulma is gone.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The hull of Titanic looms over boat six like a cliff threatening to those in the tiny boat. Hitchins, at the tiller, wants to get away from the large ship, but unfortunately his two seamen can't row. They flail like a duck with a broken wings.

"Keep pulling! Away from the ship!" he hollers. Chi Chi frowns as she climbs over Bunny to get to the oars. She manages to step on the other lady's feet before shoving both men out of the way of the oars. Hitchins is about to say something, but then the boat begins to move in the right direction so he shuts his mouth. Around them the evacuation is in full swing with boats in the water and others being lowered.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the Master at Arms office Vegeta pulls on the pipes with all his strength. This is not the way that he wants to die. Then he hears gurgling as water begins to fill the room, the door crack allowing the cold waters into the room with him.

"Kuso!" he growls as he tries to pull one hand out of the cuffs, but to no avail. "Help! Someone help!" The corridor is deserted, flooded with a couple inches of water. No one can hear him as he yells for help.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile upstairs Krillin is opening stateroom doors, checking that people are out.

"Anyone in here?" Bulma runs up to him, breathless. He looks at her in shock. "Dear child," he whispers as he tries to turn her toward the exit. "You should be on a boat. "

"I need to know where the Master at Arms would take someone under arrest!"

"What? You need to get to a bo-"

"No! I will do this with or without you, but it will take longer without." With a sigh of defeat he turns to face a corridor away from the boats.

"Take the elevator to the very bottom; go left, down the crewman's passage, then make a right." Listening intently, the sounds from frightened passengers in the background.

"Bottom, left, then right. I have it."

"Hurry Bulma," he cries as she disappeared down the hall. She runs up to the last operator who is closing his lift to leave.

"Sorry, miss, the lifts are close-" Without thinking she shoves him back into the lift, his head making impact with the lift wall.

"I am so fucking through with being damned polite. From this point on I am never polite." He shakes at the anger bright in her cerulean eyes. "Take me down!" He nods as he begins to work the controls to go down. Through the wrought iron door of the elevator car Bulma can see the decks going by. The lift slows and the man next to her panics as icy water fills the lift.

"I am going back up!" Bulma shoves him and then throws the door open and slides out onto the floor. Her floor length dress hinders her so she tears off two feet of the dress making it easier for her to maneuver through the calf deep water. She looks around as the lift goes back up. The corridors are deserted, not that she expected anyone to still be down here.

"Left, crew passage," she murmurs as she spots it. She is on her own. "Right, right… right." She turns into a cross corridor, splashing down the hall. A row of doors on each side greets her. "Vegeta? Veeeegggeeetttaaaa? "

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vegeta is hopelessly pulling on the pipe again, his face red with the effort. He puts his head against the cool pipe with a sigh.

"I am so screwed." Then he hears her, her voice just barely audable above the sound of the waters rushing in the hallway outside the door.

"Bulma! In here!"

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the hall Bulma hears his voice behind her. She spins and runs back. She rushes into the room and upon seeing Vegeta lunges at him. She hugs him close and kisses him fiercely on his blue lips.

"Vegeta, Vegeta, Vegeta… I am so sorry."

"That bastard Nappa put it in my pocket." Bulma kisses him once more before pulling away.

"I know, I know." He holds up the handcuffs as more water fills the room. It is knee high now and colder by the second.

"See if you can find the key for these. It might be in that drawer. It's a little brass one." She moves over to the desk and begins to look for the missing key.

"How did you find out that I didn't do it?" She looks in another drawer before looking up at him, her search postponed.

"I didn't. I just realized that I already knew." They share a look before Bulma goes back to searching. "There is no key in here." They both look down at the water, now coming to their waist.

"You have to go for help." Bulma nods even though it is clear that she does not want to leave him. She fears that if she leaves him that he will be left to his death, the cold water rising quickly around her.

"I'll be right back."

"I'll wait here."

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Bulma splashed down the hall to a stairwell. She climbs the stairs, still hesitant to leave her lover behind, her skirt still slowing her down and without a second thought she tears the dress off leaving her in her stockings and knee-length slip. She enters a new labyrinth of corridors. She is alone here. A long groan of stressing metal echoes along the hall as the ship continues to settle. She runs down the hall, unimpeded now.

"Hello? Somebody?" She turns down a corner and runs down another corridor in a daze. The hall slopes down into water which shimmers, reflecting the light. A young man appears, running through the water, sending up geysers of spray. He pelts past her without slowing, his eyes are crazed looking. "Help me! We need help!" He doesn't look back. It is like a bad dream as the hull gongs with terrifying sounds. The lights flicker and then go out, leaving Bulma in utter darkness. A beat and then they come back on. Bulma leans up against the wall, her eyes big and her breath coming out in shallow gulps. That one moment of darkness was the most terrifying of her life. A steward runs around the nearest corner, his arms full of lifebelts. He appears angry once he sees Bulma. He grabs her forcefully by the arm and pulls her after him like a wayward child.

"Come on. Let us get you topside, ma'am."

"Wait! Wait! I need y-" She is trying to go back to where she was, intent on finding help or going back to Vegeta's side.

"No need for panic, miss." Bulma tugs on her arm trying to free herself from his grasp.

"Let me go. You are going the wrong way." He has tuned her out and he won't let her go. She shouts in his ear and as soon as he turns she punches him in the nose, blood spewing everywhere. He looks at her in shock as his hands fly to his nose.

"To hell with you!" he screams as he runs off.

"See you there!" She spits after him, just like the way Vegeta had taught her. She turns around and sees a glass case with a fire-axe in it. She breaks it with a suitcase that floats next to her. She seizes the axe and runs back the way she came. At the stairway she looks down and gasps. The water has risen up and is now up to the first five steps. Bulma jumps into the waist high water with a gasp and holding the axe above her head she powers forward. She grimaces from the pain of the literally freezing water, her limbs burning. She enters the room where Vegeta now stands on top of the bench next to the pipes. She still has the axe over her head. "Will this work?" Vegeta eyes the red and silver axe uncertainly.

"We'll find out." They are both terrified, but trying to keep the panic at bay. He positions the chain connecting the two cuffs, stretching it taut across the steel pipe. The chain is short and his exposed wrists are very close. "Try a couple of practice swings," he suggests, mildly worried that she might actually hit him instead of her target. Bulma hefts the axe and thunks it into a wooden cabinet. "Now try to hit the same mark." She swings hard and the blade thunks in four inches from the mark. "Okay… That is enough practice." He winces, bracing himself as she raises the axe. She has to hit a target about an inch wide with all the force that she can muster, his hands on either side. "You can do it, Bulma, I trust you." Vegeta closes his eyes and Bulma follows suite. The axe comes down.

K-WHANG!

Bulma gingerly opens her eyes to see Vegeta grinning with two separate cuffs. Bulma drops the axe with a splash as Vegeta jumps down into the water.

"Nice work there, Paul Bunyan," he teases. She pulls him toward her in a searing kiss. Vegeta starts to shake as the cold water hits him. He tugs her out into the hall. Bulma starts to the stairs, but Vegeta stops her. There is only about a foot of the stairwell opening visible. "Too deep. We have to find another way out."

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E-Deck

The widest passageway in the ship, usually used by crew and steerage alike is now just steerage passenger moving along it like refugees moving toward freedom.

CRASH!

A wooden doorframe crashes in as Vegeta shoves his shoulder into it. Bulma follows him through the hole and into the crowd where a steward stands by watching.

"You have to pay for that you know!" Vegeta and Bulma turn to him, both frustrated with the crew on the large ship.

"Shut the fuck up!"Vegeta leads her away from the dumbfounded steward who just follows after them. A Japanese woman gives Bulma a large blanket, more for modesty than because she is blue lipped and shivering.

"Here lass, cover yerself." Bulma thanks her for her courtesy. Vegeta rubs her arms and tries to warm her up as they walk along. The woman's husband offers them a flask of whiskey.

"This'll take the chill off." Bulma takes a mighty drink without a thought and then hands it to Vegeta. He grins and follows suit. Along the way Vegeta and the husband tried a number of doors, all of them locked.

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On the boat deck the action has moved to the group of boats on the starboard side and the ones on the port side. The pace of work is more frantic as the crew and several officers working the davits with less complacency now. Yamcha pushes through the crowd, his dark eyes scanning for a wisp of blue hair belonging to his fianceé. In the background he can hear a woman calling for a lost child and sees a woman in nice cloths take hold of Lightoller's arm as he is about to launch the boat.

"I have to go back to my room for so-" The officer grabs her and shoves her back into the boat. Krillin rushes up to him.

"What the fuck are you doing?" he cries angrily. The other man looks at him in bewilderment.

"Not now, Mr. Krillin." Krillin points down at the water.

"Twenty or so in a boat built for sixty five! I saw one boat with twelve."

"We were not sure of the weight-"

"Bullshit! They were tested in Belfast with the weight of seventy men. Fill those boats for fucks sake!"

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Yamcha looks up and notices Nappa hurrying toward him through the aisle connecting the port and starboard sides of the boat deck.

"She is not on the starboard side either," the taller man said.

"We are running out of time and this stupid bastard," He said as he points toward Lightoller. "is not letting men in." Nappa smirks.

"The one on the other side is letting men in." Yamcha smiles.

"That is great, but we still need insurance." He starts off toward the forward, Nappa in tow.

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E-Deck Corridors- Stairwell

Radditz stands next to Launch and her family when he hears Vegeta's voice. He turns to see Bulma and Vegeta pushing through the crowd. He and Vegeta greet each other with a quick hug.

"The boats are all going," Radditz says.

"We have to get up there or we are going to be sleeping with the fishes. Where is Oolong?" Radditz points over the crowd's heads. Oolong has his hands on the steel gate which blocks the head of the stairwell with the crew opening the gate a foot or two to let women and children through.

"Women only! No men! No men!" Some terrified men, some not understanding English, try to rush through the gap, forcing the gate open. The crewmen and stewards push them back, shoving and punching them. "Get back!"

"Get back you lot!" One steward turns to the crewmen. "Lock it!" As they finally get the gate locked, after minutes of struggling with the raging passengers. Some of the crew members have brandished weapons of guns or fire axes. A cry goes up from the crowd as some yell in other languages.

"For the love of Kami there are children down here! Let us out so that we can have a chance." The crewmen are scared now. The situation has gotten out of hand and now they have a mob. Oolong goes to the back of the group where Vegeta, Bulma, and Radditz now stand in a small group. "It is hopeless that way," he sighs.

"Well, whatever needs to be done needs to be done now." Radditz turns to Launch, praying that he can make himself understood.

"Everyone… all of you… come with me now." He makes hand gestures, but his prayer goes unanswered as Launch's father shakes his head. Radditz turns to Launch, his expression sad. "Launch, please come with me." Launch looks at him and then at her family. She walks to her father and Radditz's heart breaks. Then she turns back to him and takes his hand and nods. The group heads down the halls away from the large group.

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Yamcha opens his safe and reaches inside. As Nappa watches him he pulls out two stacks of bill still bands by bank wrappers before taking the Heart of the Ocean and putting it in the pocket of his overcoat.

"I make my own luck," he says as he holds up the stacks of bills. Nappa pulls out his .45.

"So do I." The pair smirks as they leave the room.

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Steerage

Vegeta, Bulma, Radditz, Launch, and Oolong are lost searching for a way out. They push past confused passengers… past a mother changing her baby's diaper on top of an upturned trunk… past a woman and man arguing heatingly with a wailing child next to them. They pass a man trying to console an upset woman who sobs on the cold tiles and a father with an English/Arabic dictionary trying to figure out the signs while his family waits patiently. The finally make it to a narrow stairwell and they go up two decks before they are stopped by a familiar sight. There is a lone steward being yelled at by steerage men.

"Go to the main stairwell with everyone else. It will be sorted out there." Vegeta takes one look at the scene and he cracks.

"Fucking son of a bitch!" He grabs the end of a bench that is bolted to the floor and begins to pull it out of the ground. Radditz helps him as the group watches. Bulma figure out what they are doing and begins to clear the other people out of the way.

"Quickly move aside!" she cries making the people move. With a crash the pair of men knock the gate down, the gate just missing the truly terrified steward. Bulma walks over the gate after all the other people crash through. They stop as Bulma walks over to the steward.

"If you have any intention of keeping you pathetic job with the White Star Line then I suggest that you escort these good people to the boat deck… now." Class wins out and he nods dumbly as he motions for them to follow him.

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Yamcha and Nappa cross the foyer and encounter Benjamin Guggenheim and his valet, both clothed in white ties and tail-coats compete with top hats.

"Ben, what's the occasion?"

"We have dressed in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen."

"That is admirable," Yamcha says as he turns from the pair, "but not what I plan to do."

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Yamcha and Nappa watch as Baker Hohghin who is working up a sweat tossing deck chairs over the rail. After they pass him he stops what he is doing, removes a flask from his pocket and draining the whiskey from it throws it over the side. Alarm is setting in around the remaining boats. The mob is now a mixture of all three classes as the officers still warn men back from the boats. Seaman Scarott brandishes one of the oars from boat fourteen to put off a class press of men who look ready to charge the boat. Lightoller pulls out his Webly firearm and aims at them.

"Get back! Keep order!" The men back down as Lowe standing in the boat yells to the crew.

"Lower away left and right." Lightoller turns from the crowd and starts to load his gun, his breaths coming out in gasps. Yamcha and Nappa arrive in time to see Murdoch lowering his last boat.

"Too damn late," Yamcha said with a frown. Nappa turns to him.

"There are still some boats over there," he says as he points to the forward. "Stay with this one. Murdoch, he seems to be quiet… practical." In the water below one boat is being squished by another boat. Fred Barrett, the stoker, gets out his knife and leaps to the aft falls. He cuts the aft falls while another crewman cuts the forward lines. The boat manages to drift out just seconds before the other boat hits the water. Yamcha looking down from the railing hears gunshots.

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Fifth officer Lowe is firing his gun from boat fourteen as a warning to a bunch of men threatening to jump into the boat as it passes the open promenade on A-deck.

"Stay back you fuckers!" Blam! Blam! The shots echo in the darkness.

"It is starting to fall apart," Yamcha says as he sees three dogs run by. "We don't have much time." Yamcha watches as Murdoch turns from the davits and heads toward the bow. Yamcha catches up with him. "Mr. Murdoch, I am a businessman, as you know, and I have a proposition for you."

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Vegeta, Bulma along with the rest of the group burst out onto the boat deck from the crew stairs just aft of the third funnel. They look at the empty davits.

"The boats are gone." She notices Gracie chugging forward along the deck. On each of his arms is a first class woman. "Colonel!" she calls as she runs to him. "Are there any boats left?" Gracie stares at her bedraggled state nods.

"Yes, miss… there are still a couple of boats all the way forward. This way," he says as he leads them to the other boats. Vegeta grabs her hand and they sprint past Gracie. They group pass the band, whom are still playing.

"Music to drown by. Now I know that I am in First Class." Bulma tried to laugh, the thought that they were going to die at the forefront of her thoughts. She didn't mind too much, not with Vegeta by her side, but she had hoped to live several more years with him by her side, with their children growing up before their eyes as they grew old together. Tears flooded her vision for a moment at the future that was lost all because of their choice to get on this doomed ship, but at the same time if she hadn't been on here and Vegeta hadn't won his bet they would never had met... She would be without him, living a bleak life with Yamcha by her side.

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Murdoch and his team load the collapsible, the forward most davits. The crowd is sparse as everyone else was still with the other boats. Yamcha slips his hand in Murdoch's pocket, leaving the wads of bills there.

"So, we have an understanding?" The other man nods curtly.

"As you have said." Yamcha, satisfied, steps back. Ismay stands behind him, his eyes cast downward. Nappa runs up to him.

"I have found her. She is with him." Yamcha glares at him.

"Women and children? Any more women or children?" Murdoch calls, but upon receiving no answer looks over at Yamcha.

"Any one else?" Yamcha looks at the boat, but at the thought of him with her he turns toward the portside.

"God damn it to hell!" They run through the bridge. Ismay seeing his opportunity steps quickly into collapsible c. He now stares straight ahead, Murdoch glaring at him.

"Take them down."

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On the port side Lightoller is getting people into boat two. He keeps his firearm in his hand, making sure that the group knows that he is serious.

"Women and children, please. Women and children only!" Bulma shivers as Vegeta holds her close. Next to her is a woman, her husband and their two daughters.

"Goodbye for a little while… only for… a little while," he whispers to his wife. He then turns to his daughters. "Be good for your mummy." The three of them stumble into the boats. "Hold mummy's hand and be a good girl." Some of the women are dead inside while others are overwhelmed with emotion and are helped to the boat. A man scribbles a note and hands it to a woman who is about to board.

"Please get this to my wife in Lawton, Oklahoma." Vegeta looks at Radditz.

"You check the other side," he instructs the other two men. They nod and run off in search of a way around the deckhouse. Bulma turns to him.

"I'm not going without you."

"Get in the boat, Bulma," he commands, knowing that he would have loved her for longer, a future that was bleak now as he stared down into her eyes, the blue portals showing him her soul... her emotions... her love.

"Yes, get in the boat." Both turn to see Yamcha. Both are shocked to see him and Bulma takes a step closer to Vegeta. Yamcha looks her up and down in shock.

"My god, look at you." He removes his coat and places it on her. She numbly shrugs it on, knowing that he is just doing it for modesty.

"Quickly ladies. Step into the boat."

"Go on. I'll get the next one," Vegeta promises. Bulma shakes her head knowing the lie he was saying.

"Iie! Not without you!" She does not care that Yamcha is there and he watches the emotion between the lovers. Grinding his teeth he leans in to her.

"There are boats on the other side that are allowing men in. Vegeta and I can get off safely." He looks at Vegeta. "Both of us." He smiles reassuringly.

"There you see… Get on your boat and we will get in ours. Everything will be fine."

"Get in! Hurry up, it is almost full." Lightoller grabs her arm and pulls her toward the boat. Bulma reaches out for Vegeta, their fingers brushing for one split second. She then finds herself in the boat, surrounded by other sobbing women. It all seems like a blur.

"Lower away!" The pair watches as the boat begins to descend.

"You are a good liar," Yamcha whispers.

"Almost as good as you, huh?" Vegeta remarks as he turns to face Yamcha, the male smirking at the thought that he wasn't lying, at least not about HIM getting on the boat.

"I always win, Vegeta." With a smug look he looks at the man in front of him. "Pity that I left your drawing. You might need a companion in your last moments." Vegeta knows that he is screwed. He looked down at Bulma, not wanting to waste a second of his last time with her, memorizing her. Her pale skin glowing with every firework that lit the skies above him, tears shinning in her blue eyes as her blue tinted lips trembled and he could see it in those same eyes and in her tense posture. She was holding herself back and that thought filled him with happiness, an emotion he had never felt in his life, but with misery too as his heart clenched.

Bulma watched as the men lowered their boat, but she cannot hear anything as her heart pounds loudly in her ears. She looks up as a rocket's lights fill the skies, but what catches her attention is Vegeta, the white light making him look like an angel. She grows closer to the water and farther from her soul mate. She sees that his waving hand is trembling and there are tears in the corner of his eyes as he smiles down at her. She couldn't do it!! She couldn't leave him! Not now! Not ever! Without a hint of thought she jumps from the tiny boat and back onto the bigger one. She reaches the gunwale and climbs it.

"BULMA! NO!" Vegeta spins from the rail and runs for the A deck door. Yamcha has seen her jump as well, his eyes turning darker as rage overtakes him. She would die for this bastard!

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On the grand staircase Vegeta bangs through the doors to the foyer and sprints down the stairs. He sees her coming into A deck foyer, Yamcha's long coat flying behind her as she runs. They collide in an embrace at the bottom of the stairs.

"OMG! Bulma, Bulma, you are such a fucking idiot!" All the while he his holding her as close to him as he can, his lips pressing kisses everywhere. He was so mad at her, but so happy that she would choose him over her own life! If that wasn't love then he had no idea what it was!!

"You jump, I jump, right?" He nods, pressing more kisses over her face before his lips latched onto hers in a soul searing kiss as they clung together. Yamcha comes in and looks down the railing. Looking down he sees them locked in a passionate embrace. Nappa comes in behind him. He tries to calm the younger man down, but Yamcha knocks the other man down and confiscates his firearm. He runs along the railing and stops at the landing right above them. Screaming in rage he fires.


	11. Chapter 11

The carved cherub at the foot of the center railing exploded, the chunks of wood flying everywhere. Yamcha fired again as he ran down the steps toward them. A bullet blows a chunk out of the oak paneling behind Vegeta's head as he tugs Bulma to the next flight. Yamcha steps down one step onto the shattered part of the cherub's head. He goes down for a dive, the gun sliding across the floor. He gets up and reeling drunkenly, goes over to retrieve it.

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Bulma and Vegeta come around the corner of the last step to find themselves in several feet of cold water. They pay no mind to it as they ford across it to get to the floor that slopes up. Yamcha manages to come around the corner to see Vegeta and Bulma disappear into the dining saloon. He fires twice, both times making splashes in the water, but never hitting them. The water around his feet begins to rise making the upper class male jump back before moving back up several stairs. The woodwork creaks just as Nappa comes down the stairs behind him.

"Enjoy your time together!" Suddenly Yamcha's face goes blank. Then he begins to laugh, the sound off, kind of crazy sounding.

"What could possibly be funny?"

"I put the diamond in my pocket and then I put the coat on her," he says as he points to where the lovers disappeared. He turns to Nappa, the look in his eyes crazy.

"You can have it…. if you find it." He hands Nappa his pistol and goes back up the stairs. Nappa thinks about it and then moves into the water. The ice water is up to his waist as he crosses the pool into the dining saloon.

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In the dining saloon moves among the tables and ornate columns, searching and listening as his dark eyes track rapidly around the room. It is a sea of tables and they could be anywhere. The water follows him as he moves across the room.

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Vegeta and Bulma crouch behind a table, Vegeta hand holding down his long hair. They crawl from table to table as they try to stay ahead of Nappa.

"Stay here," he says as he moves off. Nappa moves down another row when a cart slams into a table and the contents shower the table and the floor. Bulma emerges from the fray and he sees her. Aiming the gun at her Vegeta tackles him from the side. Vegeta and Nappa go down on impact. They land with a slash in the water still entering the ship. The pair of men fight in the water. Vegeta slams the older man in the groin making him drop the gun. Grabbing Nappa he slams him into an ornate column. He turns to Bulma. "Let's go!" Vegeta and Bulma run through the saloon and enter the galley. Behind them the tables have become islands in the ever rising waters. Nappa looks around for his gun and upon finding it heads after them.

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They run through the galley and Bulma spots the stairs, but Vegeta stops her. He leads her down just in time as Nappa comes running into the room. They wait as he heads upstairs, thinking that no one would go down on a sinking ship. As the groaning ebbs they hear another sound… a crying child. They head down into the E-deck corridors. The corridor is awash, about a foot deep. Standing against a wall, about fifty feet away is a three year old boy.

"We can't leave him." Vegeta nods and they run for the boy. Vegeta scoops him up and they run back to the stairs, but a torrent of water comes pouring down the stairs like rapids.

"Come on!" Charging the other way down the flooding corridor, blasting water as they run. At the end of the hall is a pair of doors. As Vegeta gets closer he sees the water spraying through them and the ceiling. The doors groan with the weight and the pressure of the water. "Go back!" Bulma pivots and runs back the way that they came. They turn down another corridor where a man is running toward them. He snatches the child from Vegeta arms and cussing at the pair runs toward the double doors.

"No! Not that way!" The double doors blast open, a wall of water thunders down the corridor, the father and child gone into the waves. Vegeta and Bulma manage to make it to another stairwell going up, but unfortunately the doorway is closed off with a locked gate. Water starts to fill the stairwell as Vegeta yanks on the gate. "Help! Help!" Bulma screams upon seeing the steward run from the sound of the crashing water.

"Unlock the gate!" The steward continues running, but looking back once more can't stand the thought of the pair perishing in the cold waters. He turns and heads back to them, his left hand pulling the keys out of his pocket.

"Fucking hell!" He curses. He struggles with the lock and now the water is over the lock and the steward is forced to do it by feel alone. The lights short out as the water is now to the ceiling, all three of them under water. Suddenly the gate gives way. They swim to the stairs on the other side of the landing and follow the steward up to the next deck.

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Yamcha comes reeling out of the first class entrance, his eyes crazed and his body trembling. He spots a little girl, maybe two years old, who is crying along the alcove. She looks up at him sadly, her eyes calling to him. He stares at her for a full two seconds before moving on, the young girl looking after him. He moves closer to where Murdoch stands with some other officers. He tries to signal him, but the other man pays no heed as he takes care of the mob where Radditz, Oolong, and Launch are right in front. Radditz grabs her hand and leads her away from the group.

"Trust me," he says as they remove themselves from the group as Lightoller, with a group of crew and passengers, try to get down the collapsible b down from the roof. They slide it down a pair of oars.

"Hold it! Hold it!" Lightoller says as the oars break and the boat crashes to the deck.

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Murdoch, at collapsible a, is no longer in control. The crowd has turned into a mob and they are threatening him with screaming and cursing. They push and jostle to rush at the boat. The pressure from behind pushes one man overboard.

"Give us a chance to live, damn it!" Oolong cries angrily. Murdoch fires his Webly twice in the air before pointing it toward the mob.

"I will shoot any man who dares to pass me," he threatens with a wave of his firearm. Yamcha steps up to him, a frown on his face.

"We had a deal, damn it."

"Get back," Murdoch snarls angrily. The man behind Oolong rushes forward and knocks him forward. Murdoch shoots the first man and in split seconds shoots Oolong as well. The small man's blood pools around him as the mob moves back. He looks down at his feet, at the blood that he has spilled, the lives that he has ended, and turning to his men he salutes them before blowing his own brains out. His body drops over the ship. Yamcha runs over to see the other man's body floating on the oily surface of the Atlantic, the bills in his pockets surrounding him. As if nothing has happened Purser McElroy calls for the last women and children to get in the boats. Yamcha runs off and a split second is back with the young girl that had been hiding.

"Here is a child! I have a child!" he cries as he rushes through the crowd. He stands before McElroy with the still sobbing girl. "I am all that she has in the world," he lies. "Her mother died giving birth to her." With a curt nod the other man allows him into the boat with the other women. Yamcha tries to console the young girl, her cries filling his ears.

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Krillin stands in front of the fireplace in the first class smoke room, his face sad as he looks up at the large painting above the mantle. The fire burns brightly before him, the flames licking at the wood as it warms the cold air. Bulma and Vegeta run through the room, out of breath and soaked. Bulma stops as she recognizes who he is.

"Mr. Krillin?" she inquires softly. He turns to her, his lifebelt on the table behind him. "Will you not even try for it?" A tear rolls down his cheek.

"I am sorry," is all he says before turning to the clock that is just below the picture on the mantle. Vegeta grabs his lifebelt and handing it to Bulma he tugs her away from the other male.

"Good luck to you," she says as they disappear out of the large room. With a glance at his watch Krillin puts the hands of the bigger clock at 2:12.

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On the boat deck the band finishes the waltz. Wallace Hartley looks at the other orchestra members.

"I guess that that is it then," he says sadly. The other members walk away from him as he puts his violin to his chin and begins to play the first notes of "Nearer My God to Thee." One by one the others return, their heart strings pulling at the lonely melody. They join him, their instruments filling in the sound so that it reaches out over the ship, the silence replaced with the hymn.

"If in my dreams I be, nearer my God to thee…"

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A seaman pulls off his lifebelt and offers it to Smith. The other man passes him without so much as a glance as he enters the wheelhouse. He closes the large door, his eyes turning to the brass instruments. He is alone now and with a sigh he closes his eyes.

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Two figures lie in bed, both fully clothed with their hand together. Water pours into the room as elderly Ida and Isador Strauss stare at the ceiling, the water rising quickly.

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We see the same young Irish mother from earlier as she tucks in her children. She lays between them, her face sad as she speaks soothingly to them.

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On the port side collapsible b is picked up by water. The men work harder to detach it from the falls before the ship drags it under. Gracie hands Lightoller a pocket knife. A wave washes the boat, still upside down, off the ship. Men start diving in to get to it.

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In collapsible a Yamcha sits with the young girl in his arms, his eyes watching the water rise around the men who rush to get the collapsible free.

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Smith stands by the wheel as the water rises over the windows in the wheel room. He looks like a damned soul on Judgment Day. The windows start to web out, cracks now covering the thick glass. The dark sea finally bursts through the glass sending shards of glass and water into small cabin. Smith disappears in the vortex of foam.

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Collapsible a is hit by a wave as the bow of the larger ship plunges suddenly. The water swamps the ship, washing it along the deck. Over a hundred passengers are plunged into the freezing waters and the area around the ship becomes a frenzy of splashing, screaming people. As men try to climb into the collapsible Yamcha, placing the girl next to him, grabs an oar and pushes them back into the water.

"Get back!"

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Hartly turns to his group as they stop playing.

"It has been a pleasure playing with you, gentlemen."

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Vegeta and Bulma run out of Palm Court and into a dense crowd. They push their way to the rail to see what the state the large ship is in. What they see is not a super big surprise. The bridge is under water and there is chaos on deck as people scramble to either jump into the water or move farther on the large ship.

"We need to stay on the ship for as long as we can. We have to keep moving astern."

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Collapsible a is whirled around like a toy boat in a bathtub, the currents slam it against the side of the forward funnel. Yamcha frowns at the crew.

"Row you lazy fucking bastards."

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Vegeta and Bulma crawl over the A-deck astern rail. Then, using all of his strength, he lowered her toward the deck below. She falls over after letting his hand go. Vegeta lands beside her before the pair join a crush of people heading for the well deck… the only way astern. Seeing that it is going to be impossible through the large crowd the pair heads for the B-deck railing. Bulma once again falls over into heap after letting Vegeta's hand go. Baker Joughin, now drunk as a skunk, happens to be next to her. He hauls her to her feet as Vegeta lands next to them. They run through the crowd as several people jump into the freezing waters. The ship groans and shudders making everyone scream in fright. The man in front of the group is walking slowly.

"Yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death-" He is cut off as Baker shoves into him.

"I guess that shadow came a little early," Bulma mutters as they run past him.

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The stay cables along the top of the funnel snap, lashing the ocean like steel whips. Yamcha watches the funnel topples out of its mounts as it falls into the black waters with a monstrous splash. People under in disappear in an instant, the Atlantic claiming more lives. Hundreds of tons of water crash through the thirty foot hole where the funnel stood. A whirlpool forms as the water thunders down into the belly of the ship. Oolong's body is sucked down like a spider going down the drain.

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Water roars through the doors and windows, cascading down the stairs like the rapids. Astor is swept down the marble stairs into the already flooded A-deck. He grabs the headless cherub and wraps his arms around it. He looks up as he hears the crackling of glass, his dark eyes open wide as the overhead glass dome explodes inward. A Niagara of sea water thunders into the room, filling the first class opulence and going down the stairs into the belly of the ship.

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In the decks below the flooding is horrific. Walls and doors splinter like kindling as water floods down corridors with pile-driver force. The Cartmell family is at the top of a stairwell, their bodies pressed against the metal gate as Bert Cartmell shouts for help. The water boils up around them as little Cora wails.

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Vegeta and Bulma struggle to climb the well deck's stairs as the ship tilts at angel. Baker, still drunk, puts a hand on Bulma's butt help her up. Vegeta glares at the other man before looking out over the deck.

"Sorry miss," Baker says. Hundreds of people run across the titling deck as the ship heads slower into the waters. As the bow goes up and the stern raises the giant bronze propellers rise up into the air. People fall over the railing as they jump for their life. Most of the people who jump off the ship are killed while others cling to the ship for safety. On the poop deck Vegeta and Bulma struggle as the ship angles farther up. Several passengers huddle around Father Byles who has raised his voice in prayer. Most are praying out loud while other sob or stare out into space, their minds seemingly gone. Pulling himself from handhold to handhold Vegeta tugs Bulma along the deck.

"Come on, Bulma. We can't expect Kami to do it all for us." They push through the praying people before making it to the stern rail, right at the very spot where Vegeta saved her two days prior. Above all the sadness they can still hear the sermon from Byles. The stern rises into the air, the lights on the ship flickering with the stars in the skies. Bulma stares into the faces of the doomed.

"… I saw the new heavens and a new earth. The former heavens and earth had passed away and the sea was…" Launch's family looks over at her, their eyes sad. Bulma notices a young mother with her five year old boy next to her, both sad, but the boy crying. The mother comforts her son as the reverend continues on. "He shall wipe the tears from their eyes and there shall be no death or mourning, crying out or pain, for the former world has passed away…"

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Cupboards burst open showering the floor with tons of china as a piano slides across the floor before crashing into a wall. Furniture tumbles across the smoking room floor.

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On the A-deck promenade passengers lose their grip before sliding down the wooden deck like a bobsled run, hundreds of feet before they hit the water.

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At the stern people leap from the poop deck rail, their screams filling the cold night air. One person hits the propeller and they are decapitated, blood spilling into the night.

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Swimmers look up and see the stern towering over them like a monolith, the propellers rising against the stars.

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In the darkness Chief engineer Bell hangs onto a pipe at the master breaker panel as men around him climb through tilted cyclopean machines with electric hand- torches. It is a black hell of breaking pipes and spraying water. The machinery groans around him, the sound threatening. Water sprays down, but Bell does not leave his post.

Clunk!

The breakers kick and he slams them again and—WHOOM! There is a blast of light before something melts. The engine room fills with nightmarish light. The lights on the ship go out leaving Titanic a black silhouette against the stars.

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In collapsible c Ismay has his back to the sea, his eyes shut. He tries to block the visions in his head of the dying that is going on behind him, but the sounds fill his ears as people cry out in agony.

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Near the third funnel a man clutches the ship's railing as he stares down at the waters. With a thunder of sound the deck splits under him, his eyes flying to the yawning chasm below him.

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Nappa clutches the railing as the ship splits below him. He watches as people, looking like dolls from far away, fall through the hole in the ship. The stay cables on the funnel snap across the decks like whips, ripping off davits and ventilators. The metal cable hits a man, slicing him in half as one of the other cables knock Nappa into the abyss of twisted metal. Fires break out along the chasm as the hull splits down through the nine decks to the keel. The sea pours into the wound even as sparks and explosions rock the large ship.

With a scream the poop deck plummets back onto the darkness of the sea. Most of the screams fall silent as the ship falls on the unfortunate souls under the ship in the cold water. Vegeta and Bulma hear several people praise the lord, but both know that something worse is about to happen. Suddenly screams fill the air again as the ship angles up again, the flooded bow pulling them down again. Passengers cling to benches and other objects around them as the stern lifts. Bodies begin to fall as the exhaustion of the night reaches them.

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"Fuck this!" Vegeta cried as he tugged Bulma back from the cries, her eyes full of fear. He yanks her over the railing that just two days prior she had threatened suicide on. They make it over just as the ship straightens itself vertical. Bulma watches from her safe spot, Vegeta clinging securely to her, as others stare at her, their eyes full of fear and others full of understanding as they fall to their deaths. Bulma looks down at the murky ocean below her, her cerulean eyes wide with terror and knowledge. Then the ship begins to sink, the frame of it shaking with the quake.

"Hold tight onto me, Bulma. The ship will try to pull us down, but you must kick for the surface." Bulma nodded as the water came closer to them, the screams of death filling her ears. The water rushes at them from a hundred feet below them. As the water rushes up at them at a quick pace Vegeta turns to Bulma once more. "Take a deep breath just before the water hits us and hold it!"

"I love you," Bulma says just seconds before the water touches her hands and she takes a deep breath. Now the darkness is quiet with death and with hope as the ship disappears into the waters, bubbles covering the surface as the last breath of the ship dies. Now several bodies come to the surface, all of them struggling in the cold waters. Cries of fear and gasps of breath fill the cold night air as people struggle to find something to hold onto. Vegeta and Bulma surface together, a pair of lovers in the middle of all the sadness and fear of the other passengers. Without even a second to register what is going on Vegeta and Bulma are bombarded with people crazy with fear and pain. They claw and fight to get at the pair, fighting to climb onto them like they are tiny islands of refuge. A man suddenly grabs at Bulma's blue locks that pool around her like a pool of ice over the murky waters. With a scream she is dragged under with him, but not before Vegeta sees her sink below the waters. With a gasp of air he dives below and punching the man in the face sets Bulma free. He grabs her lifebelt and tugs her away from the unconscious man. They move away from the mass of crying and wailing of the other passengers as a streak of light flies over them. They look around them as they swim, the swimming keeping them from freezing.

"We need to find something, anything, floating."

"It is so fucking cold," Bulma moans. Vegeta nods.

"I know. Look around." That is when she spots something in the water.

"Vegeta! Look over there!" He looks over there and smirks at the sight of the door floating just feet away from them. He tugs her with him over to the door before helping her onto it, but when he tries to get on it the door tips almost knocking her off of it. He frowns for a minute, but then makes it look like it is okay as he clings to the side of it. Then he hears someone coming closer and upon turning toward the crowd sees a man swimming toward the door that Bulma lays on.

"Back off," he warns. "It is only big enough for her." The man continues toward them despite the warning.

"Let me try!" the man cries. "I'll die soon if I don't." Vegeta growls deep in his throat.

"Death will come quicker if you come any closer." The man shudders and then leaves the pair alone. In the distance a whistle is heard as the boats move from the group. Bulma looks over at Vegeta, her lips as blue as her eyes. Vegeta shudders as the cold begins to creep farther into his body. They look into each other's eyes knowing what was truly going on even as others told their loved one's that everything would be okay.

"Help us!" a woman screams, her breath clouding around her face.

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Bunny cover's her ears as the wailing reaches the boats. Only first class women sit in the boat along with a couple of seamen and Hitchins.

"We can't go back!" he warns, his voice cracking with the cold and guilt. Chi Chi glares at him, her contempt for the man before her obvious. She turns to the women.

"It's your fucking men out there calling for you!" she says before turning to Bunny. "It is your children out there screaming for their lives." Bunny's eyes tear up for Bulma, her only child. "Come on!" Chi Chi urges as the women huddle in their furs.

"Shut the fuck up!" Hitchins growls. "There will be one less woman on this boa-" Chi Chi shoves him out of the boat before turning to the other women.

"Pick up those oars!" she cries to the two seamen who look at her in fright as Hitchins screams from the cold. They begin to row back toward the screaming masses. Chi Chi's boat passes another boat. This one has twelve people in it, two of them being Sir Cosmo and Lucile Duff-Gordon. "What the fuck are you bastards doing?" she growls. "Pick up your oars and join us in saving some innocent lives!" Lucile nods and shoving one of the men aside begins to row even as her partner frowns. Hendrickson shoves the other man over before grabbing the other oar and the pair of boats head into the darkness where the people's cries grow louder.

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Vegeta and Bulma lay in the darkness, neither of them moves for a minute. Bulma looks down at the waters where the stars reflect their lights. Vegeta tucks her jacket around her legs and moves back over to her, his body growing stiff. He looks up at her, his skin losing its healthy glow and color. Bulma knows that they are doomed to die, but that does not matter for she has found her soul mate.

"I love you Vegeta," she whispers as she clutches his hands. Vegeta realizes what she is doing.

"Don't fucking say your good-byes. We will make it out of here." Then Vegeta looks up at the sky only to see a glowing star that is brighter than the others. With a frown he curses. Bulma looks at him in bewilderment. "Bulma, do you truly love me for who I am?" This seems to confuse her even more, but she nods. "Hold on," he says as the waters around him begin to warm up.


	12. Chapter 12

Vegeta soared over the dark water, Bulma looking down at the site that was the Titanic. They could see the people in the waters, most of them crying in fear as they froze to death. Bulma turned to look at Vegeta.

"How?" she inquired. "Why?" Vegeta smirked.

"I am not human like you or any of them," he said motioning to the people below them. "I am Prince Vegeta from Vegeta-sei." Bulma looked at him in shock, her eyes growing wide. "As for not doing anything until now. I had forgotten my powers while in the moment." Bulma stared at him, her mind trying to comprehend what he had just told her.

"Radditz too?" she inquired. Vegeta nodded. At least she knew that Launch was alive. "Was any of what you told me true?" Vegeta nodded.

"We have been staying here to live as humans do. Amazingly enough I knew of your father, which was the main reason that I was to come here. He and my father were friends. I was to come for you, but I could not come as myself for things would be awkward as they are now, but there was no way in Hell that I was going down with that ship and there was no way that I would let my mate die either." Bulma almost said something, but then his words hit her.

"Mate?" Vegeta nodded.

"You are my mate, future queen of Vegeta-sei." This shocked Bulma into further silence. They flew away from the wreckage, the night slowly turning into day as the sun began to peek over the horizon.

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Yamcha exited the tiny boat, several other occupants filing out behind them as they climbed the ladder onto Carpathian, the only ship around for miles. He looked around as the other boats unloaded, but no woman with blue hair was to be seen. He looked into the eyes of the passengers, their eyes wide with terror and others dead with sadness, their loved ones sleeping with the great ship. A worn woman climbed onto the ship, her blond hair frazzled, but Yamcha recognized her.

"Bunny!" he called his voice harsh from the cold. She looked up at him and her eyes filled with some hope.

"Did you find her?" she rasped. He shook his head.

"She left with him and I could not find them." Bunny looked down at her feet as Chi Chi walked up behind her. Bunny turned to the younger woman and clung to her. Chi Chi wrapped her arms around the smaller woman.

"May Kami care for her…" Her dark eyes looked up into the skies as two streaks of light trailed across the skies. Suddenly a coat landed on the ground. Yamcha and some of the other passengers approached the coat with fear and curiosity. Yamcha picked it up, his dark eyes recognizing the jacket. He turned the collar out and looked at it, his face going pale. "What is it?" Chi Chi inquired, Bunny looking over at the pale man. He showed them the collar.

Vegeta Ouji


End file.
